They’ve been besties for more than 60 years and have spent the last two years of their retirement as the newest members of the super volunteers at the Native Friendship Centre.
Violet Desjarlais and Bertha Gansevles are part of the Kookums’ Konnection group.
Kookum means grandmother and the role of these volunteers falls into a traditional grandmother’s role where she will play with the little ones (in the early childhood education department), guide in tradition the young ones who need grounding (in the youth groups), assist with food security (at the food bank) because there’s nothing worse than an empty belly and then there’s even some craft creating of items that are gifted to those in need. It’s all part of the volunteering effort to lift up the community in need of assistance, teachings and guidance.
“We’ve been here about two years now,” Mrs. Desjarlais said. “Bertha and I would come in here once in a while for lunch at the Smokehouse and then they kept getting after us to join the Kookums' Konnection.”
It took the pair about a year and then they joined the group.
“We’ve been friends since we were little girls,” Mrs. Desjarlais said about her connection with Bertha.
“Bertha’s brother and sister are married to my sister and brother.”
And here they are still friends 60 years later, she added.
Both Mrs. Desjarlais and Mrs. Gansevles were both mostly in the food industry throughout their careers, cooking in camps, decorating cakes at a bakery, things like that.
“Right now we volunteer at the food bank and I really enjoy that,” Mrs. Desjarlais said. “We do that every Wednesday. I look forward to coming here and doing that actually. We volunteer whenever they need us down here.”
Mrs. Gansevles is a bit more shy than Mrs. Desjarlais and said she also enjoyed her time volunteering with the food bank.
“And also with the youth,” Mrs. Gansevles said. “I look forward to coming to volunteer every time they ask us."
