For some, opening up your home to a complete stranger can be an unnerving experience. But for the people who take in some of the the country's most open-minded young people, it's more like a calling.
Recently, the current group of Katimavik volunteers took a break from sharing close quarters with 11 other young people at the Katimavik house and spent 12 days scattered around Prince George as billets with host families.
And once again, sisters Rita Murphy and Lorna Wandio answered the call to share their home and seven decades of Prince George citizenry with a young woman. The sisters have hosted three people since March, and have had a memorable experience with each one.
"I love the kids, they've really been sweet. We've had a wonderful time," Wandio said. The two, who often become Grandma and Nan to their billets, came onboard after Wandio spotted an advertisement in the newspaper looking for hosts.
"As soon as I heard the word Katimavik I said 'yes,'" Murphy said.
Eleven years ago, Murphy lost her 17-year-old grandson. "He went up on a wilderness retreat and never came home," she said. The young man was presumed to have drowned in the Bulkley River near Hazelton that August, but his body was never recovered.
Months later, in December, a former Katimavik leader was exploring her new town of Smithers and after descending a set of stairs, discovered a body washed up underneath the church.
"It's been a hard road," said Murphy, who has also lost her husband, two sons and a daughter-in-law. "I said 'yes, please. Let's give back.' I'm grateful to Katimavik for what they put into my life and consequently, I want to put back into somebody's life."
As residents of Prince George since 1939, when they lived in a tent on the shore of the Nechako River, Murphy and her younger sister have plenty to share with the volunteers, aside from just their home. But they also have plenty to learn, as demonstrated by the recent stay of a young Muslim woman.
"I had never heard of halal anything," Wandio said, explaining they stocked up on plenty of the religiously acceptable chicken for the 21-year-old's stay, but that they couldn't find any beef. "We made chicken in any way possible - and even some new ones," she laughed.
"It's a Katimavik tradition," explained Katimavik's Prince George project leader Rachel Walpert. For a two-week period every three months, volunteers try and integrate more with the community they're living in.
The five guys and six girls who make up this contingent of volunteers hail from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta. They have been in Prince George since July and have been completing full-time volunteer gigs with various organizations and events in the community. These include the Red Cross, Carney Hill Neighbourhood Centre Society and Caledonia Ramblers.
A new group will arrive Sept. 28 after the current crop of volunteers moves on to Midland, ON.
