VOLUNTEERING

This, as near as I can remember, is an accurate list & description of places I have worked without remuneration, and without expecting any.

ABBREVIATIONS USED ON THIS PAGE

Abbreviations for Canadian provinces: Alta, Alberta; B. C., British Columbia; Man., Manitoba; Ont., Ontario

CJIB - A radio station in Vernon

DJ - Disc Jockey

PG - Prince George, B. C.

PGKC - Prince George Kennel Club

Team. - Teamsters

VCN - Vancouver Community Net

VO - 26 positions I have had as a volunteer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

POSITIONS I HAVE HAD AS A VOLUNTEER

1960

VO-1 - Hockey Player

    In the evenings we would take turns with the hose, flooding the ground in the open rink.  It took a lot of ice to cover the grass.

About the time there was enough ice to play on, a Chinook would come along and melt it all.

Once we went to Strathmore, or Standard, I can't remember which, to play a game.

I had the puck and was moving along, holding the puck against the boards.

I looked up from my stick and saw this mountain of a player, from the other team, coming at me, like, almost on top of me.

The next thing I know I was on my back looking up at the sky.  I have no idea what happened. 

Well, obviously we know what happened, I just don't remember it happening.

VO-2 - Hockey Player

1963

VO-3 - CJIB DJ        

    Some Saturday afternoons I would go to Vernon to the radio station with some of my class mates and we would spend an hour playing music and reading reports from our school. 

This is probably where I got the desire to be a DJ.

1964

VO-4 - High school Square Dance Club

    We would go to neighbouring towns and compete.  We also went to Cloverdale for a provincialcompetiion.  We weren't even close to winning but we had a good time which is what square dancing is all about.

1966

VO-5 - Volunteer Fire Department, Fireman

    Our claim to fame was that we had never lost a foundation. 

We had one fellow on the brigade that could hold a four inch hose by himself.  I remember once during practice we were hosing down the main street and he was on the front of the line.  He turned the nozzle between his legs and sprayed everyone behind him.  I tried to hold a two inch hose by myself one time on the bridge and blew my hat into the river.

One time we answered a call to a sawmill on the Mable lake road.  Sparks had flown from the beehive burner into the trees and started a forest fire.  Another fireman, much smaller than I, and I, ran out a four inch hose into the trees.  While waiting for others to bring us a `Y' connector / reducer and some two inch hose, the wind whipped the fire around behind us and we were cut off.  We didn't have radio communications in those days.  All we could do was lie on the ground and cover our faces with our handkerchiefs to filter the smoke.

For some reason someone turned on the water to our hose.  We didn't have the `Y' yet and we didn't have a nozzle but all of a sudden we had a hose jumping around like a snake on a hot brick.  The two of us grabbed the hose and worked our way to the end of it and tried to control it.  I was trying to hold my buddy, he was trying to hold me, and we were both trying to hold the hose, with no luck. 

Finally we flopped on it and pinned it to the ground.  With horseshoes up our asses we landed so that the hose was facing the advancing wall of fire and we soaked everything in front of us, the hose was still jumping around quite a bit, so that the fire passed us on both sides.  Shortly after, help arrived with the `Y' and two smaller hoses and we were able to get control of the water.

Hilarious when you look back on it.  It would have been a great skit for the three stooges, but at the time it was deadly serious and very frightening.

My worst memory of the fire brigade was the house on the Indian reserve that burned to the ground before we got there.  Most of the houses on the reserve were Gov't. built prefabs and the Indians would rip the lining off the walls to put in their stoves.  When one caught fire there wasn't much to burn except the exterior and the framework.  They went fast.

We turned the spotlights on the smoldering embers and searched for remains.  We knew by the smell there was at least one fatality.  I just happened to be looking in the right, or wrong, spot when the light shone on the remains of the bed.

1974

VO-6 - R. C. M. P 

    I was hired as a part time guard and dispatcher.  There were times when I was taken along as ride along, no official capacity.

One instance that comes to mind was a patrol through the two hotel bars in town.

Knowing the bar tender, I stopped to talk to him while the two uniformed officer walked amongst the tables.

One of the officers was short and squat, solid, a former football player.  He was stopped by a drunk who staggered up out of his chair and said, slurringly, “I could kick the shit out of you”.

The officer was about to reply when the other officer, tall and slim, stepped up.

The drunk looked they two of them over and slurred, “Two of yah, huh.  I could kick the shit out of both of you.

I stepped, in civilian clothing, stepped between the two officers.

The drunk slowly, slightly weaving, looked over the three of us and commented, “Three of ya, huh.”

He then turned and sat back down in his chair without another sound.

We, like we were on the parade ground, did an about face and marched out of the bar.

Once we were outside we relaxed our straight faces and burst out laughing.

1977

VO-7 - Assistant Hockey Coach, Pee Wees

Img  VO-7 
Me in the blue jacket. P. in front of the coaches’ left shoulder.

I took the National Coaches Certification Program and achieved my Level I,  II, & III hockey coach qualification.  I was a volunteer Assistant Coach for a Pee Wee hockey team.

During a practice, one of the little players got hurt

We matched all the sick handles to his face guard and none of them would fit between the wires, and the wires weren’t bent.

We never did figure out how he lost his tooth.

1984

VO-8 - Roll-A-Dome, Floor Patrol and Concession Staff      

    After I moved back to Prince, from Edmonton, I became a devotee of roller skating.  I spent most of my evening hours skating and after closing would sit in Bino's with other skaters while they swilled coffee.

At the roller rink I often worked in the concession selling pop and candy but more often would be at the skate counter handing out or putting away skates. 

Occasionally I sold tickets at the door but more often I would patrol the floor, watching for trouble makers, or teaching beginners.

VO-9 - Hockey Coach, Pee Wees     

    As I was a qualified coach I volunteered to teach hockey.  I took on a team of youngsters, most of whom had never seen skates before.

I concentrated on teaching them how to skate. I had many an argument with their parents who wanted them to be making goals their first day on the ice and I didn't even want them to have a stick for the first three months. 

I encouraged their parents to take their children to the Roller Dome where they would get more experience on skates.

1986

VO-10 - Rock Pit, Pool Contest Judge

    Monday night was pool night at the Rock Pit cabaret and it was also night off for most of the staff.  I would help referee the games at the pool tables.

 
VO-11 - PGKC  Junior Handlers, Instructor

    I had a German Shepard that I wanted to train for tracking so I joined the Kennel Club.

I became involved in the club and took over the office off Junior Handlers.

This involved working with children who had dogs and wished to give them some basic training and who wanted to learn the basics of showing trained, and pure bred, dogs.

VO-12 - R. C. M. P  Auxiliary, Peace Officer

    After a course in Criminology I was accepted into the R. C. M. P. Auxiliary and given: first aid; firearms; handcuff; and baton training.

Img  VO-12 
(Photo `03)  P. G. Police Station

Once trained, an Auxiliary is an officer, if he is under the direction of an officer.

This means an officer can phone an Auxiliary at home and direct him to do something. 

The auxiliary did not have to be in uniform but had to carry a weapon.

The rules have changed since then and they may not even have Auxiliary anymore. 

The force has never been able to set an accepted standard for dress; armament; training; or usage of an Auxiliary.

However in those days, once trained, an auxiliary was sworn in by the attorney Generals department of B. C. and became a provincial peace officer, authorized to perform as a peace officer, anywhere within the province, even if not under the direction of a Mountie.

3rd marriage

VO-13 - Canopener Productions, Actor, Crew

    L. T. producer, director, and writer. 

I did everything behind the camera: pull cable, hold the mike, setup, drive, etc., except operate the camera. pull cable, hold the mike, setup, drive, etc.

In front of the mike I did acting, stand in, prompting, extra, etc. 

We made three movies one summer and in one thirty-two hour period we shot in seven locations.

I never understood how L. could get the locations for free.  On night, about 4 AM, we had a coast guard cutter, real, with crew, come into a narrow cut and shines its light on a naked girl.

We had an antique Chris Craft idling below.  The operator was keeping out of sight and just operating the boat enough so that it didn’t hit the rocks.

The girl was supposed to be the survivor of a ship wreck.

Another time he got the revolving restaurant, before they opened for the day, and got them to make it revolve.

Unfortunately L. has suffered a stoke and is no longer able to write.  None of the films that he shot have ever been edited.

VO-14 - Live Stage, Actor Murder nights.

    A friend of mine got me into a production company that was producing small dinner skits.  These were actually held in the bottom of the building I was living in.  The Anchor Hotel.

The skits involve the acting of two or three short scenes which lay out the plot of a murder.

Then the customers are served a meal and given time to try to figure out who killed who, and how.

A final stage appearance is held where a draw of answers is made, the answer is revealed, and a prize is awarded, if anyone made the right guess.

The Production company eventually went broke and gave it up.

VO-15 - `90  Molson's Indy, Press Chauffeur

Img VO-15
  (Photo `03) Race Track of the Molson Indy

    During the Labour Day weekend, long weekend, first weekend in Sept., I volunteered to drive a fifteen passenger van at the first Molson's Indy. 

My job was to shuttle press between the hotels and the racetrack.  I was also part of cleanup after the race, collecting the golf carts and four wheel ATV's that were scattered all around the track area. 

I offered to volunteer the next year but they wanted me to pay.  Pay to be a volunteer?  I don’t think so.

1991

VO-16 - Carnegie Center, English Tutor

Img  VO-16 
(Photo `03) Carnegie Center (Corner of Hastings St. E. & Main St.)

    While going to college, learning to repair computers, I was going to the old library on the corner of Main and Hastings to learn how to use computers.  On Saturdays I would study basic DOS and WordPerfect. 

I gave up these classes as I took up teaching ESL, English as a Second Language and became a volunteer at the center.

My students were two lovely young ladies from Taiwan.  Sometimes their husbands would join them, so my class, held in one of the rooms in the center, was from one to four students, for two hours, on Saturday morning.

I had to give it up because W3 was too jealous.

I mean paranoid with jealousy, and I never, even once, gave her a reason to be.

I told my students that I was leaving town and they had me over to their place for a lovely Chinese dinner.

VO-17 - VCN  – Vancouver Community Net (Formerly known as Vancouver Free Net)

Img VO-17 
(Photo `03) 411 Dunsmuir (Home of the VCN)

    The VCN is a free internet provider, see my article, `Freenets'.

As a member of the VCN I would attend computer swap meets and man a booth extolling their virtues.

Once I spent an evening at the casino, in the Royal Hotel, in New Westminster as a security guard.

I patrolled the floor, and the door, and at the end of the night helped count the takes from the tables.

A percentage of the proceeds went to the VCN.

VO-18 - Security Guard

    I spent the evening in a school gymnasium during election night.

I was directing traffic as people lined up to vote.

Most of the people were elderly Orientals.

Having come from a communist country they take their right to vote very seriously.

* Note: This may have been a paid position. It is so long ago I don't remember for sure. I only remembered to add it in 2008.

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VO-19 - Suburb of Babylon Part II, The Last of the Last of the Mohicans

    When I applied for the position I thought I was getting paid.  But it turned out to be a charity event.

It was the part from Hell.  I had just started a new job, at Radio Shack, which require a lot of study and a lot of hours because the part time employees were forever phoning in sick and I had to do extra shifts.

The main actress I had to work with was seldom there to work through our parts.

I thought I found a deserted place to practice my singing, out on the end of an old wharf, but someone called the police.

And the director! Nuff said.

However in the end I was awarded with a compliment by one of the audience.  The man asked me how long I had been in Canada.  My Irish accent was good enough to fool someone from the `ol’ sod’.

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VO-20 - Peace Officer

    A group of students from UBC were making a short movie. 

I played the part of a police officer.

We worked late into the night and one young lady, playing th part of an accident victim, lay on the cold pavement, with little clothing, for a very long time.

She had a tube running under her, that she kept adjusting so the camera couldn’t see it.  The tube was pumping fake blood into her beautiful blonde hair.

I hope she makes it in the `Biz’.  She was a real trooper.

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VO-21 -  Froome Room Episode 3, The Show's a Bomb, Actor - April

    A group of young people where making a series for Roger’s Cable.

I played the part of `Rock Gibraltar' a news anchor, who goes off the deep end, while on the air, and has to be carried away.

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VO-22 - `00 July  Canada Day, Security & Information

    I volunteered to direct pedestrian flow, and hand out information, on Canada day at Canada Place.

I wrote  an article  about it. 

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VO-23 - `01 July  Monday Canada Day, Security & Information

    I volunteered for Canada Day.

I attended the festivities, mostly held below Canada Place as the crowds, over the years, were becoming to large to hold the event in the Convention center.

I did the same the year before and wrote  an article  about it. 

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VO-24 - `01 Dec.  Team 155 Turkey Dinner

    I spent a day at Oppenheimer Park, helping wherever I could during an annual Xmas dinner.

See my article  ANNUAL DINNER

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2002

VO-25 - Team. 155, Fast Pitch
Img  VO-25
  Vans we used to shuttle the ball players.

    Teamsters 155 offered to supply drivers for a national ball tournament. 

I drove players back and forth from their hotel to the ball field.

See my article MEN’S FAST PITCH

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VO-26 - Team. 155, Movie Pilot

Img  VO-26 
Grips Truck (On the left)

    Teamsters 155 offered to supply drivers for a no budget movie pilot. 

I drove the grips truck.

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