When I was 18 I spent my last $80 on a bus ticket from Edmonton to Grande Prairie and a Whopper meal at Burger King, all for a job in the oil patch. Thankfully for me, those were early boom times and it worked out.
I was raised in Edmonton, and before graduating highschool completed an Emergency Medical Responder certificate so that I would be able to get a job right out of highschool.
My great great grandparents immigrated to Alberta from Ukraine and Germany, and farmed east of Edmonton for generations. My grandparents met in their farming community and got married before my grandfather enrolled in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Flight Engineer nearing the end of the second world war. He flew on Hercules aircraft all over the world in the post war / cold war era. I would follow him into service in the RCAF two generations later. Then, when it came time for him to retire, he and my grandmother moved to Edmonton with their three daughters, and lived there for the rest of their lives.
I often think about my grandparent’s legacy, and how after military service the call ‘back home’ to Alberta gave them the life they wanted for themselves and their family. This is the same thing that I have sought for myself.
I graduated from Portage College in Lac La Biche with an Emergency Medical Technician certification in the early 2000s. My first job was as a paramedic in Edson, working on ambulance and in the regional 911 Dispatch center.
Then, my first big opportunity came when the military opened up a new recruitment program. For the first time, the RCAF was opening up recruitment directly from the public for Search and Rescue Technicians. The list of required qualifications was high, but by luck and circumstance I met them all: paramedicine, scuba diving, wilderness and backcountry, climbing and ropes. Even more importantly - leadership potential.
I joined the RCAF as a Search and Rescue Technician in the cohort of the first ever direct entry SAR Techs. This also explains why I was 20 years younger than most of my peers!
You'll hear me say "We" a lot. When things get done, there is always a team. In this complex world when we work together we succeed.
While military service gave me the opportunity to not only spend time in every province and territory of this great Country, and to live on both East and West Coasts, as well as Northern Quebec (Chicoutimi), I am an Alberta boy through and through.
I served for a decade as a SAR Tech, got to work with some of the world's foremost leaders and experts in aviation, operations, and paramedicine. I flew missions in the arctic, the frigid North Atlantic where the salty water doesn’t freeze even below zero, and far out into Canada’s territorial waters. However, like many of my colleagues, I suffered many injuries in the line of duty, and I was eventually medically retired.
I am what you could call a ‘modern veteran’, as is my wife Jasmine who was a Logistics Officer in the RCAF. We met and got married when we were both posted to 9 Wing in Gander Newfoundland. The Forces gave me opportunities, knowledge, and leadership experiences that cannot be duplicated. After retirement, through a Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Program I studied Computer Science at the UofA, worked as a Teaching Assistant, and worked in an AI research Lab.
Now, at a relatively young age I am finding other ways to serve. To me, that means most of all contributing to the communities that I am connected to and that I live in.
I've been volunteering with the same Edmonton High School's Scuba Diving/Leadership program for 20 years. At first as a deckhand and today as a PADI Instructor. The experience I had as a student in the program gave me an advantage later in life, and I firmly believe in providing our youth today with opportunities for experiences that can jumpstart their futures.
My wife and I moved back to Edmonton as soon as she retired from the military so that we could be closer to family and support services. The city isn't exactly for us though. Give us big open skies and boreal forest any day over skyscrapers and traffic.
Like millions of other Canadians I don't have a family doctor. Improving access to healthcare in our community is a real and personal goal for me.
My wife and I are fortunate to have found our forever home here in Hinton. We both agree that there is no better place for us in the entire country. We’ve seen a lot of places in this great big country, and are choosing this beautiful, friendly, exciting community as our home and want to contribute to its success into the future.
