Originally published in the Bird’s Eye

The pins are small but mighty. Emergency Management BC sends them out through its regional offices, recognizing five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five years of service. On the afternoon of Saturday, August 29, Emergency Support Services Director Judy Hagen hosted the program’s 20th anniversary barbecue in her backyard on West Road. Thirteen volunteers were called up for twenty-year pins. A fourteenth, Joanne Hart of the Salvation Army, had earned twenty-five years and could not be there as she was just getting back from being on call with fires again. Those fourteen volunteers represented 285 years of service between them. And that was just the first round of presentations. Judy moved on to the fifteen-year pins next.

Quadra Island Emergency Support Services (ESS) turned twenty this summer, two decades after Judy and Eileen Mackay founded the program in 2006. In true ESS fashion, the anniversary barbecue was also an exercise, with everyone signed in and wearing their official garb. This was no solemn affair. People heckled through the presentations, Judy heckled back, and somehow I ended up on the mic calling ticket numbers for prizes. When Judy said she suspects the ham radio operators do not report all of their hours, one of them called out from the crowd: “We’re pretty secretive about it.”

Then came the number that stopped me. When the program began in 2006, Judy did not track volunteer hours. She had not yet realized those numbers would matter when it came to funding the program. She started counting in 2007 and has counted every year since, across the whole Quadra Island Emergency Program (QIEP). From 2007 to the end of 2025: 54,217 hours. At the province’s 2025 valuation of $26 an hour, their accountant, Helen McCubbin, put that at $1,409,642. More than 1.4 million dollars of work, done on this island.

What that work has actually looked like over twenty years, and why they need more people to help carry it, comes next.

Most islanders know the yellow sandwich-board signs marking a Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program (NEPP) emergency
meeting point. Fewer know what’s behind them. QIEP has four parts. Emergency Management runs the Emergency Operations Centre; ESS helps people driven from their homes by fire, flood, earthquake, or other emergencies; NEPP works year-round to get neighbourhoods ready before anything happens; and Emergency Communications connects the island by ham radio. QIEP is volunteer-run from top to bottom, relying on more than a hundred volunteers in any given year. In 2025 there were 134, many holding more than one role.

Their largest exercise was April 15, 2018, when they evacuated the whole of Schooner Road to Campbell River. A school bus carried people from the Legion to Quathiaski Cove, and once the paperwork was completed, everyone boarded the old Powell River Queen on a special sailing that served as a rehearsal for both QIEP and BC Ferries. The heavens opened as they disembarked. Everyone got drenched. QIEP has also identified every possible beach and dock on Quadra that could be used to evacuate people by sea in an emergency, including if a forest fire cut road access to a ferry terminal or Reception Centre. It is the kind of preparation we hope never to see tested firsthand, but that level of attention and research could one day make the difference between being stranded and having another way off the island.

In 2025 alone, QIEP volunteers logged 2,702 hours, worth $70,252. “Better tell them how much we get a year,” Judy called out. Their
accountant, Helen McCubbin, answered: $7,000 from the SRD. Twenty years on, the program is facing a familiar challenge for long-running volunteer organizations: many of the people who built it are getting older. Judy put it plainly: “We started in our 60s, so guess where
we are now.”

Right now, every role is open, and QIEP especially needs volunteers with strong computer skills. They’ve had twenty years to perfect the pathway for people who want to serve their community in a supporting role. New volunteers are first interviewed and matched with a role that suits their skills and interests, and all the required training is provided from there, including free First Aid for every volunteer. If you’ve got medical experience, you might fit well in Health Services or Emotional Support, while those with policing or security experience might be a fit for Security. And you don’t need a specialized background. There are plenty of practical roles, and part of that twenty-year pathway is figuring out where you fit.

Or maybe you’re simply curious. Have you ever wondered what emergency preparedness looks like at this scale? How an island gets evacuated? Have you ever seen a ham radio in real life? Volunteering is one way to find out while learning skills that could matter enormously to your community.

After operating without a dedicated NEPP Coordinator for much of 2025, the program is grateful to now have Bill Sims in the role. If you want more information or would like to get involved, contact Judy at
[email protected] or 250-285-2150.

Just think: in five short years, you too could be collecting a small but mighty pin in Judy’s backyard on a sunny August afternoon.

Links of Interest:

• Quadra Island Emergency Program
• Articles about or mentioning the Quadra Island Emergency Program
• Articles about, or mentioning, Judy Hagen

Top image credit: Photo – Eight of the thirteen 20-year pin recipients pictured:standing, l–r: Jude McCormick, Judy Hagen, Lynda Bell, Eileen
Mackay, Tammy Hagen, Nancy Allwarden. Seated, l–r: Mary McIntosh, Marian McMeekin Five not pictured: Murray Abercrombie, Betty Doak, Patricia Lowes, Dick Walters, and Glenda Walters – Courtesy the Bird’s Eye