Osler resident Sandra MacArthur was recently honoured with the Order of the Red Cross, which is the highest award bestowed by the Canadian Red Cross.
The Order of the Red Cross is a medal that is given out annually to extraordinary individuals who have dedicated many years of service to the organization, and who have provided outstanding humanitarian service at home and abroad.
MacArthur has been a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross for 14 years and she has helped others in the midst of disaster. She was the Chief Administrator Officer for the Town of Osler, she is recently retired, and some of her responsibilities in that job had similarities to what the Red Cross does.
“One of your roles is to support emergency measures if there should be a disaster in your home community. So that’s part of why I was interested in the Red Cross,” she said.
MacArthur was very excited and surprised to be recognized for this prestigious award.
“It was just a really unexpected and humbling experience to have them present it to me,” she said.” I guess someone decided I was the person they wanted to nominate and they had some lovely support letters and I was very honoured and humbled.”
When MacArthur first joined the Canadian Red Cross, she was an emergency management volunteer, but her role has expanded to her working at emergency shelters and evacuation sites.
“I have been deployed in other provinces. I was in British Columbia when they had their wild fires in 2017. So I was a site manager in 100 Mile House for that particular disaster,” said MacArthur.”
Not only has she volunteered with the Canadian Red Cross provincially and nationally, but she has also done some work internationally.
“I was deployed to North Carolina during Hurricane Matthew and was a site manager there during that time,” she said. “I went to Portland, Oregon for a training event they were having for their emergency management team, and I spoke on behalf of the Canadian Red Cross.”
MacArthur’s main reason for joining the Canadian Red Cross is she wanted to help people in her community.
“When I first joined, I wasn’t thinking of going to other provinces or anything like that, I was simply thinking what can I do locally that would help individuals in our area,” she said.
Not only has MacArthur helped people in their time of need, but she has facilitated Canadian Red Cross emergency management courses in northern communities to support the development of local emergency preparedness planning.
This is a fairly new initiative and the main mission is to make sure those communities are prepared if a disaster occurred.
“I traveled to a number of northern communities in the summer and fall of 2019. The last time I went to a northern community was in March of 2020 just before the pandemic hit,” said MacArthur.
Volunteering with the Red Cross has become a big part of MacArthur’s life, as she has dedicated a lot of her personal time helping those in need.
Other people throughout the country received the Order of the Red Cross honour and even though it is important to acknowledge the work they do, they volunteer with the Red Cross because it’s something they truly believe in.
“I can’t imagine anyone in the Red Cross doing it for the sake of getting awards; we do it because we care about people and want to help folks out,’ said MacArthur.
MacArthur was recognized in two virtual ceremonies last month.
The Saskatchewan chapter of the Canadian Red Cross held a ZOOM meeting to congratulate MacArthur and then she attended a ceremony, via ZOOM, where the Canadian Red Cross recognized all recipients of the award.
MacArthur said she was the only Saskatchewan Red Cross volunteer to receive the award for this year.
Throughout the many years of her dedicated service, MacArthur has had the support from her family and she was thrilled that her two children and their families, who live in Calgary, attended both virtual ceremonies.