Skip to content

Grant helps those who help in the community

A new trailer that is currently being outfitted to become a mobile medical treatment centre will not only help the Tri-Cities branch of St. John Ambulance serve patients better and more comfortably, it may also help recruit more volunteers.
St. John Ambulance
Brayden Stephenson, Kevin Hazelwood and Eric Spence ensure the ambulance used by the Tri-Cities District of St. John Ambulance is fully-equipped and ready to roll. The organizations, which provides medical care at community events as well as first-aid training, will soon have a new mobile medical centre to deploy that was partially funded by a Port Moody community grant.

A new trailer that is currently being outfitted to become a mobile medical treatment centre will not only help the Tri-Cities branch of St. John Ambulance serve patients better and more comfortably, it may also help recruit more volunteers.

When it’s completed, the trailer will cost about $30,000, all of it raised from corporate donations, organizations, events, local governments and $5,000 from a Port Moody community grant, said Brayden Stephenson, St. John’s administration and finance officer.

Stephenson said St. John Ambulance relies on support from the communities it supports because it doesn’t provide immediate, front-line medical assistant at local events for the money. In fact, the donations the organization collects to attend those events are rolled right back into equipment and services, like first aid training programs.

Stephenson said the organization’s 50 volunteers currently work from a small, portable tent that doesn’t provide much shelter from the elements or privacy for patients. For large-scale events like Golden Spike Days in Port Moody or the Play On street hockey tournament that was at Coquitlam Centre for a few years, a larger, military surplus shelter can be deployed but it takes two days and a lot of manpower to set up. And neither option provides any protection for St. John's Gator all-terrain vehicle, which can be used to ferry equipment to an injured patient or transport that patient back to the tent for further care.

“The tent gets really crowded quickly,” Stephenson said. “It’s nice to have a place for patients to go and to be able to treat multiple patients at the same time.”

That treatment can range from bandaging a cut finger to being the first responder to a motor vehicle collision just outside a venue, as occurred in 2015, when the service was working the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open golf tournament at the Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, said Eric Spence, St. John’s division training officer.

He said the new mobile medical centre will give the service a stronger presence at some of the 68 events it attends every year. It will also be rolled out to large, multi-day events elsewhere in the province if required.

“It’s important that people know where they can find us if something were to happen,” he said.

The equipment in the trailer will allow St. John’s trained attendants to administer oxygen and immediate first aid to help stabilize patients in the critical early moments after a medical incident until paramedics or firefighters are able to reach the scene if they’re required. It will also allow them to take some of the pressure off hospital emergency wards by being able to care for more routine incidents like cuts, sprains, insect bites, sunburn, heatstroke, etc.

Kevin Hazelwood, St. John’s district superintendent, said as the number and scale of events in the Tri-Cities continues to grow, being able to provide a consistent and high level of care to every patient is important. And for that it will need more volunteers.

Hopefully having a secure, well-equipped place to practise their newfound skills will be an enticement, Stephenson said.

“The more volunteers we have, the more it benefits the community.”

• Applications for Port Moody’s community grant program are being accepted until Jan. 31. The grants are available to community groups and non-profit organizations that contribute to the general interest and benefit of the city’s residents and businesses. For more information as well as a link to the application form, go to portmoody.ca/communitygrants.