The Town of Smithers has set up its own Canadian Red Cross page to collect donations for evacuees escaping the wildfires that have consumed so much of B.C.’s south and central interior.
Anne Yanciw, chief administrative officer for the Town of Smithers, said they made their own donation page to make it easier for people donate.
“The reasoning really was to make it easier for people to know what they could do to contribute … with a name like Smithers Cares people from the Smithers area it might create that sense of ok this is one that where it’s appropriate for me to do this.”
In the event that the wildfires grow and the Evacuees could be sent to Smithers, but that would only happen if the wildfires were to grow and evacuations expanded on a greater scale.
“The trigger for that would have to be a significant evacuation somewhere else, say all of Williams Lake and surrounding area if hose twenty-thousand people were evacuated, that would probably be a game changer,” Yanciw stated.
Anyone who wishes to donate, can do so by credit card or PayPal at redcross.ca/BCFires/Smitherscares.
The Red Cross is asking for cash donations to help it organize relief such as cots, blankets, family reunification and financial assistance for food, clothing and personal needs. It is only taking monetary donations because of the cumbersomeness of transportation through disaster areas. But volunteers are needed at communities like Prince George where evacuees are being sent.
There are currently three volunteers from Smithers helping out with support services in Prince George, according to Yanciw.
“Which is helping with the relocating and the temporary homing of all of the evacuees and animals.”
“Every municipality is legislated to have emergency support services, but emergency support personnel tend to be volunteers. The best analogy is like our fire department, where we have a fire department, but all the firefighters here are volunteers, so it’s a little bit of a model like that,” she said.
According to the Red Cross, they take 5 per cent of donation for administrative costs and the rest goes towards the cause.
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