by David Guth

Shannon Wilson says deploying to assist the Canadian Red Cross response to a series of large wildfires in Northern Manitoba had a familiar feeling.

Canada suffered through its worst wildfire season in three decades this summer. More than 100 fires scorched over 2.5 million acres across two provinces. Wilson headed to Canada in July. She was among more than 100 American Red Cross staff and volunteers who helped support relief efforts, including fellow Kansas and Oklahoma Region volunteers Patsy Aguilar and Paul Czosnowski.

Wilson, who was born in Canada, said that her familiarity with working with Native American groups in Oklahoma during her previous three dozen disaster deployments was extremely useful, in that everyone evacuated from their homes in Canada were indigenous persons from First Nation communities.

“Having deployed a lot in Oklahoma, I was used to working with tribal groups and respecting their requests,” Wilson said. “It was requested that we house them in their separate communities and work through their elders because each community runs independently”

Wilson — who lives in Lawrence with her husband, Dean, a former Air Force captain — said she used to be the one in the family who stayed at home to “hold down the fort.” Now it’s Dean who stays behind.

“He is totally supportive of it because it is what was in our marital background when he was gone,” she said.

The Canadian Red Cross normally houses evacuees in hotels. With more than 14,000 people fleeing the fire affected areas, however, American Red Cross volunteers and their Canadian counterparts were sent to Winnipeg, Manitoba’s capital, to support the sheltering of hundreds of people in the city’s Royal Bank Convention Center. The arena is the home of the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets.

“It was the largest shelter I’ve ever worked in,” Wilson said. “I really appreciated the opportunity because I was trying to get some experience with mega shelters. The only way you can train for a mega shelter is to be in a mega shelter.”

One of the more unique aspects of this three-week deployment was the food fed to volunteers by the convention center staff.

“This was amazing food,” Wilson said. “The food was the same as that they prepare for big corporate conventions.”

As part of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, national societies often support disaster response in neighboring countries. The American and Canadian Red Cross have a long history of this kind of collaboration. The American Red Cross also stepped in to help support wildfire relief efforts in Alberta in 2016. The American and Canadian Red Cross are two of the 191 Red Cross and Red Crescent societies that comprise the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.