MADD seeking volunteers for Yarmouth County chapter
Public information session scheduled for Feb. 18 at SIP Café
In an effort to attract more members, the Yarmouth County chapter of MADD will hold a public information session next week.
The session will take place Tuesday, Feb. 18, at SIP Café, 357 Main St., in Yarmouth, starting at 6:30 p.m., and will provide the opportunity to learn more about what MADD does.
“We’ll talk about the campaigns and programs of MADD Canada, the activities that have been sort of traditional things in the Yarmouth area, and look for some members to join us,” said Susan MacAskill, MADD Canada’s Atlantic regional manager.
The organization has reached out to stakeholders, including the RCMP, who have confirmed they will be represented at the Yarmouth session, she said.
“They (the RCMP) are a key partner with road safety and we do team up with them from time to time to do checkpoints and hand out our information,” MacAskill said. “We’ll reach out to some other partners in the community, (hoping) there’ll be some that will come out and want to join a group that’s been effective over the last 15 years in the Yarmouth area.”
Yarmouth County is one of 13 MADD chapters in Nova Scotia. The next closest on the north shore is MADD Bay of Fundy. On the south shore, the closest one to Yarmouth is Lunenburg-Queens. The Bay of Fundy chapter covers the area from Meteghan to Kingston.
MacAskill, who is based in the Windsor area, says the Yarmouth County chapter is not alone in seeking new people.
“I’m currently working with a chapter in Prince Edward Island that are hoping to recruit some new members through the same process,” she said.
MADD Canada values its volunteers, she said, but it also realizes people may decide to look for other ways of contributing to their community.
“So there is a little bit of turnover from time to time,” she said.
A public notice advertising the Feb. 18 session in Yarmouth lists some of what MADD does, including supporting victims and survivors of impaired driving crashes, distributing red ribbons, educating students, participating in checkpoints (with the RCMP) and promoting Campaign 911 (whereby people are encouraged to report suspected impaired driving by dialing the emergency number).