Where would a community be without volunteers?
Every week I find myself constantly amazed at how many people donate their time to a selfless act or cause.
Last week it was hearing from the folks who run the bike park in Vanderhoof. It’s a huge project and a great asset to our community.
It has next to no funding to keep it going. A small group of people recognize the need for it and are willing to go way out of their way to make it work. From picking up highway garbage to pay for the parks insurance to giving up time and energy to maintaining the trails for the general public.
This team, like so many others, deserves our respect. This community is flooded with volunteers, there’s is just too many to mention. Much volunteering takes place quietly and unnoticed by many individuals who seek no reward and make no fuss.
Among these groups of course are our firefighters. This is a new phenomenon to me - in England there are no volunteer firefighters. It is a government paid-for job and, although that doesn’t take away from the great work they do , the fact that many firefighters in Canada are willing to put their lives at risk to help others, and in their own time for free, is truly impressive.
So I pay tribute to the volunteers - the whole army of them. Much of what they achieve finds its way in some form into the pages the newspaper. They are truly the heart of a community - without them our area would be much diminished.