Celebrating contributions of Sask volunteers

MERIDIAN SOURCE STAFF

The Government of Saskatchewan is joining Sask Sport, SaskCulture and the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association in thanking volunteers and marking their accomplishments.

“National Volunteer Week is a time to recognize and celebrate the more than 330,000 volunteers across Saskatchewan and the valuable work they do for our province,” said Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Laura Ross.

“ Volunteers are hardworking, tireless and humble individuals. They come from different backgrounds and are motivated by nothing more than the simple desire to make our communities better.”

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“If someone overdoses on it, it’s not good. There is not a really good outcome on that,” said Bezuidenhout.

He says he has experienced people overdosing on opioids during his job as a professional paramedic but not as an outreach volunteer yet.

This year’s National Volunteer Week theme is Volunteering Weaves Us Together

“Almost one out of every three Saskatchewan residents are volunteers of some type,” Ross added.

“It is why our province is well known across Canada for our volunteer ethic. Let’s celebrate National Volunteer Week together by making sure we take a minute to stop and thank those people who put in the hours to our make our lives better.”

One major source for volunteer opportunities In Saskatchewan is through the Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund, which provides more than 1,200 organizations and communities direct funding. This grant program reaches approximately 12,000 benefi-

“The training as a paramedic definitely helps and just making sure the ladies are safe—Jessica and Heather,” he said.

“We start at midnight because that’s when users are the most active and we go up to five o’clock in the morning.

Bezuidenhout says he’s got a couple of ciary groups and a remarkable 600,000 participants across the province each year. Volunteers help make the thousands of community events and activities held by these organizations each year successful. friends that are going to start working with Tawaw Outreach as well a couple of evenings.

If you are looking for opportunities to volunteer in Saskatchewan, visit Volunteer Connector.

“So we will have a good team reaching everybody,” he said.

Bezuidenhout explains the Tawaw team provides users with a safer experience and they also talk to them in regards to getting off drugs.

“That’s why it’s really good news that we have success stories of people who’ve decided they are done with this,” he said adding his volunteerism is personally rewarding too.

“It’s definitely rewarding seeing the changes in the people’s faces. When I started with them they were really skeptical about me being there. They’ve warmed up to me now,” said Bezuidenhout.

“They will talk and bring their personal problems to me and we try to support each other in that way.”

Bezuidenhout says drug use was a growing problem in Lloydminster but it’s flatlined at the current time.

“It’s been basically stagnant now, so it’s good news. We get a lot of new faces in town, so the population regarding that is growing,” he said.

He also stressed drug users range in age from 18 to 60 and come from all walks of life and ethnic groups with a common cause.

“Everyone basically has their own story that they share with us, but it’s almost all trauma based,” he said.