By Amy Baechmann
With the fires in the area burning for over a month, Gina Myhill-Jones says she decided to organize a thank you card initiative to send to firefighters battling the fires as a way to show them that people are noticing how much work it must be and that they appreciate it. She started the initiative on Aug. 9.
“We’ve got guys out there that have been fighting the fires since the get-go, so over a month now, so I am assuming that those guys are also feeling a little tense. And the people who have been living next to these fires and under risk of these fires are probably also feeling a little tense, and you see that in what people have been posting on social media.”
Myhill-Jones adds that she started the initiative because she felt that it would be nice for the firefighters who have been there for over a month, to be able to receive cards and have something in their hands from a youngster. Meanwhile, writing the cards will give people a positive thought, so they are not thinking about all the negative things going on all the time, she says.
“It gives people an opportunity to actually participate in the process, so they get to actually get out there and cheerlead for these guys. They want them to be successful and do well.”
There are many fires all around the district and for many many people,
Myhill-Jones says, it has been a constant worry as fires advance on their properties or they are wondering about smoke damage and all the other possibilities.
Part of the way she’s been getting the word on the campaign out there is through the “Cariboo Neighbours 911” Facebook page she started back in 2015 and she says she started for the same type of situation that our community is in now with all the wildfires.
Shelly Morton, the Executive Director at the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce, has been helping out Myhill-Jones by making the Chamber the drop off site for the cards. Because the firefighters are so widely spread everywhere, Myhill-Jones says that now it only comes down to finding out where the firefighters are, to get the cards delivered.
“It was supposed to be just for firefighters, this initiative, is kinda what I was thinking, but now a bunch of cards have come in for the RCMP, the army, and the BC ambulance!”
She says that sadly there haven’t been many cards dropped off for the firefighters from the community and she hopes that this story will motivate people to say their thanks to the firefighters too. She adds that people from Langley and the coast have even sent up cards, which is pretty amazing.
She will be asking around for help to distribute the cards to the firefighters soon, she says.
She advises anyone who writes a card to drop it off at the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce in 100 Mile House, suite number two 385 Birch Avenue (right across from Ace Hardware) or to mail it to PO Box 2312, V0K 2E0, 100 Mile House.
Timber Mart also has thank you cards available at their tills which you can fill out and then send down to the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce, she says.
She would definitely like to challenge other businesses and community groups to do the same as Timber Mart, says Myhill-Jones.
“Now that we’re started, let’s keep this thing going.”