Fort McMurray non-profits see increase in volunteers but have fewer opportunities

Residents in Fort McMurray have been looking to volunteer over the course of the pandemic, but with many events and fundraisers cancelledthere have been fewer opportunities to get involved.

Volunteers have been packing hampers at the Wood Buffalo Food Bank for months.

Anna Noble, communications manager for the food bank, said typically there are lulls in the middle of the week but lately that hasn't been the case.

"It's nice to see people so enthusiastic about coming out and helping their community," said Noble.

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FuseSocial helps people find non-profits to volunteer for through its Wood Buffalo Volunteers website.

In 2019, 2,189 people created profiles on the website to become volunteers. In 2020, 2,775 people joined.

Shelby Marshall, volunteer centre administrator for FuseSocial, said the number of approved volunteer hours for October to December 2019 was 920. In 2020, that number was 1,600.

When parts of Fort McMurray flooded in April 2020, the website saw an influx of people looking to help out.

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Candace Sturgess, volunteer co-ordinator for FuseSocial, said there have been fewer volunteer opportunities over the last year but she expectsthat to change.

"The funding challenges that a lot of organizations have, they have to do a lot morewith less, and so the need for volunteering is going to increase over the next year," Sturgesssaid.

FuseSocial has been trying to keep volunteers trained and ready for when they're needed.

"That's kind of been the focus I would say for the last four months," said Sturgess.

Samantha Collins, mentoring co-ordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Wood Buffalo, said there has been a 14-per-cent increase in the number of volunteers from 2019 to 2020.

"We've definitely seen an increase since the pandemic started, which is amazing and very surprising," said Collins.

She thinks it's because the organization was able to stay open during the pandemic.

"We stayed open the entire time," said Collins."I think it kind of gave us a lot more visibility.

"When everything closed, youth lost all of their relationships they had, their friends in school and teachers and extracurricular activities. So that was a time in their life when they really needed something more."

Abigail Falvey, program co-ordinator for Girls Inc. of Northern Alberta, said her organization has seen an influx of young adult and teens volunteering.

"High school and young adults I think are really kind of itching for opportunities to get involved in their communities," said Falvey.