Making cancer patients feel welcome in their home away from home, keeping first-time offenders out of the judicial system, filling Christmas hampers at St. Vincent de Paul Society, feeding people at the Canada Winter Games, herding sports-minded participants during the 55+ B.C. Games and coordinating past Terry Fox Runs is what one local volunteer has been doing for the last 20 years.
Terry Cramer's father, Douglas Thompson, died of cancer in 1985, which has inspired a lot of her volunteerism, including time she spends at Kordyban Lodge, which offers a home away from home for out-of-town cancer patients.
"We worked very hard to bring the lodge here and then I was very excited to know that I could get in there and volunteer," Cramer said.
She's been volunteering there since it opened in March 2013 and was in training in preparation for her volunteerism six months before it opened.
"And it was awesome," Cramer said. There is a strong contingent of 25 volunteers and 13 staff that run the lodge, she added.
Cramer volunteers every Wednesday morning at the front desk so she welcomes new guests, offers orientation, tours, and is always ready to answer questions or lend a sympathetic ear.
"I help them settle in and just be a friend for them to talk to," said Cramer. "The guests are so grateful to be here."
She often hears that the Kordyban Lodge is such a wonderful place. It's only one of four lodges in the province and Cramer said we're lucky to have it to ease the burden when cancer patients have to travel to Prince George for their treatment.
Cramer said many guests just settle in and hang out just like they would in their own home and that's what it's all about.
Taking on a different type of volunteer position sees Cramer as a certified facilitator for the Prince George RCMP Restorative Justice program since it started in July 2015.
The program offers an alternative to criminal justice. The offender takes accountability, while the victim gets a voice, using a community justice forum that sees the victim and their supporters, the offender and their supporters together in a safe environment where trained staff and volunteers facilitate. Each agreement is different and could include the offender making reparation for their offence, doing community service, taking counseling, addiction treatment, that offers resolution for the victim, offender and the community.
"I think this is a really great idea and I just wanted to be part of it and make it better because I believe in it," Cramer said.
Cramer does what she calls smaller commitments in volunteering as well.
During her volunteer time at St. Vincent de Paul Society, Cramer will help fill the hampers with dry goods one day and then next with the fresh products and then it's time for pick up and delivery.
"That's usually when I'm outside running the traffic," Cramer said. She also spent two weeks helping provide food to those participating and organizing the Purden Ski Village sporting events held during the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
For the 55+ B.C. Games Cramer spent 15 years as coordinator for the swimming competition. It was 30 years ago that Cramer discovered the Senior Games in Vernon and vowed that when she turned 55 she was going to do it.
"I've done it off and on for a lot of years," Cramer said. "I'm in the swimming and I also mountain bike."
Cramer will be coordinating the athletes in mountain biking at the 55+ B.C. Games in Vernon this year. The host city chooses the sports they host and mountain biking hasn't been in the games since 2008 when it was hosted by Prince George, Cramer added.
"And I have more than 10 people already," Cramer said about the fall event. "I'm pretty excited about doing the mountain biking this year."
Cramer also helped coordinate Terry Fox Runs, along with Tom Masich and Dick Voneugen, for a decade starting about 20 years ago. She was inspired to volunteer in part because her mother, Hazel Thompson, used to work with Betty Fox, Terry's mother.
Cramer feels it's important that people know Terry Fox came to Prince George to run in the annual Labour Day Classic on Sept. 1, 1979 as he contemplated his Marathon of Hope. The statue that stands at the Community Foundation Park to this day was inspired by a photo of him taken at the Prince George race as he decided he could run across Canada that raised $23.4 million for cancer research.
"So we have a unique statue because that is actually Terry standing where he was contemplating the Marathon of Hope," said Cramer.
Cramer enjoys the variety of volunteer positions she holds.
"I do it because I like to help people," Cramer said. "It's good to be part of all of it. We really are a volunteer town."
Flip through The Citizen's Volunteer City series, featuring stand-out volunteers in Prince George:
