Column: Volunteer groups step up for transportation and housing

A strong community is much more than a bunch of people sharing a geographic area.

While it certainly includes the physical infrastructure such as roads and parks, and the availability of desirable amenities and services like health care and recreational opportunities, it also relates to the vibrancy and overall well-being of a community.

When you talk to people who live in the South Shuswap, you quickly appreciate that many residents of this beautiful area are passionate about where they live and are thankful for their remarkable quality of life here. This passion carries over into daily activities and interests. For example, we see that many in the South Shuswap have volunteered their time in an effort to make things even better. By volunteering at community halls and associations, parent advisory councils, service clubs, social groups, charitable organizations and recreational leagues, volunteers are making a major contribution to the overall well-being of our community.

Two new volunteer organizations have recently been organized with purposes related to improving the well-being of our community, namely the South Shuswap Transportation Society and the South Shuswap Housing Society. The purpose of the South Shuswap Transportation Society is to provide safe, convenient, affordable and personalized transportation services to our community. This will be achieved with the help of volunteers; people willing to act as volunteer drivers and dispatchers. The service will provide door-to-door transportation during weekdays using an electric vehicle to keep the operating costs at a minimum and will be funded by donations from riders. We hope the service will be up and running this fall, and this will be dependent upon the receipt of grants to fund the car and charging station.

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The purposes of the South Shuswap Housing Society include facilitating the provision of housing to those in need, to construct, hold, manage and maintain affordable housing, to advocate for housing needs and to raise funds to support housing and ongoing operations of the society. We know that there are several important housing needs in our area, including transitional housing for seniors wishing to downsize and/or those in need of care, rental housing for seasonal workers and affordable housing for those with low to moderate incomes. We hope these needs will be further defined with the implementation of a housing needs study funded by the province in our area. More importantly, we hope to be able to construct new housing units in our area to meet these needs.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to all of the volunteers who have stepped up to help make our community even stronger. If you are interested in joining either of these two new societies, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with me. If you are interested in learning more about all of the non-profit organizations operating in the South Shuswap, please plan to attend our Community Engagement Day on Thursday, June 27, from 4 to 8:30 p.m. at The Sorrento Centre. It’s all about building a stronger community.

-Paul Demenok is the Area C director for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District