By Greg Fry

New shuttle bus service from North Shore to Stuart Wood

Nov 9, 2017 | 2:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — Members of the North Shore’s most vulnerable population now have an easier way to access cold weather shelters in Kamloops.

This as Glenn Hilke, volunteer coordinator with local non-profit organization JUMP, launched a new shuttle service this week.

He says the idea was hatched in response to the recent snow storm and cold snap that has gripped the city.

“I was seeing people coming into our drop-in centre on the North Shore, the Royal Social Club, completely enveloped in blankets, you could not even see their faces. They were frozen solid,” Hilke tells CFJC Today. “I realized that these folks were going to need to get inside to save their lives in some cases or to avoid things like frostbite and other health-respiratory related illnesses but also important was that they needed assistance to get downtown.”

And with the cold snap-snow storm overlapping with the introduction of the new downtown winter emergency shelter at the Stuart Wood school he said word of the new initiative was not getting through to the homeless community.

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He says the culture of the chronically homeless in town is more of an oral culture “so without flyers it would take a while to get the word out.”

That’s when Hilke decided to launch the shuttle service to help fill the need from around 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. each night.

“We cruise the areas of the North Shore where you would normally see people gathering or walking to stay warm or maybe thinking they’re going to bed down and put a tent somewhere and we pose a simple question: ‘Do you want to come to the shelter?’”

He says the service has been bringing an average of eight to 10 people to the shelter each night. Hilke says it’s been well received, even by those who decline the service.

“For those people that you meet that say, ‘No I’m okay, I do have a roof over my head,’ they say, ‘Thank you so much for asking, thank you so much for caring.”

But to keep the service going, Hilke says he needs volunteer drivers to help.

“The reason for that is I could easily become a distracted driver as I’m driving along, scanning the streets for where people are, trying to make a quick assessment of whether this is a person I should ask.”

He also hopes a car dealership comes forward to particpate with a loaner of a shuttle van, nothing more than a seven-passenger van. 

Those interested in helping out are invited to call Hilke at 250-879-0465.