A Thompsonite who has been volunteering with the Red Cross since 1989 has recently won a distinguished service award from the organization.
Phyllis Wiscombe, originally from a small community in Newfoundland, first became interested in volunteering for the Red Cross when she was a child.
"The big push came when I was nine or 10 years old. I grew up in Newfoundland and we lived on a peninsula. There was a big fire at the mouth of the peninsula and the people were cut off and they had to be evacuated to us who were further down the peninsula," she says. "It always stayed with me, and after that I was always interested and always wanting to help, because I remember seeing the kids."
Wiscombe took her desire to help with her when she moved to Manitoba. As a Northern Manitoba volunteer, she helped in multiple forest fire and flood evacuations, particularly the forest fires that took place in 1989 and the floods that happened in 1997. Most recently she took part in helping volunteer with the flooding last summer in the southern part of the province.
Wiscombe has also helped coordinate disaster management training and response in Northern Manitoba and has acted as registration and inquiry supervisor and disaster management instructor.
Along with being president of the regional council, Wiscombe has also served as vice president, regional council, a member of the western zone council, the Manitoba representative on the western zone volunteer resources committee and has chaired the regional awards committee. In 2007, Wiscombe became president of the Manitoba regional council with the Red Cross.
"My goal in getting on the council was to get a voice for Northern Manitobabut it never stops there, because I'm all the time talking to people and trying to get a bigger voice out there," she says. "As a result of me being on council, more importance was put on having a presence in the North."
Wiscombe lobbied the Red Cross to create a position for a community outreach coordinator for the North, which has been filled by Carolyn Wright.
According to Wiscombe, the Red Cross in Thompson and all across Northern Manitoba needs more volunteers.
"What happens in Northern Manitoba is that we have all kinds of volunteers - as soon as we have a disaster, everybody's there. But we don't necessarily have them on paper. So you know how it goes, we get nervous," she explains.
Wiscombe is currently trying to get enough individuals interested in taking part in a free disaster Manitoba level one training course in Thompson. She is also taking part in the Warm Hands & Friendship, a partnership between the Thompson Citizen and Red Cross that encourages people to donate new mittens, hats and scarves to people in need. Donations can be dropped off at the Thompson Citizen, Wawatay Inn and Illios Restaurant.
