Helping the Helpers

"I need to still work, I want to still work, I want to help out where I can, but my family comes first. This is a solution to the problem."

"Obviously I want to be in my home and my home is the most comfortable place I can be."

"But this is a great second option."

Rick Stewierski, 35, Paramedic, Orillia, Ontario

"We have a lot of requests, but we need to have more relationships with dealers and places that are willing to lend their campers out."

Ashley Oriet, Windsor, Ontario, originator RVs for Canada's Frontline

"We kind of went, 'wait a minute, we have really great customers, and they're not allowed to use their units right now."

"I wonder if any of them would be willing to maybe lend [their recreational vehicles for temporary use of novel coronavirus first-responders]."

Stacey Robinson, co-owner, Great Canadian RV dealership, Peterborough, Ontario

2011 Thor Four Winds

Josie Beck

Taking inspiration from what they understood to be happening elsewhere, a number of people involved in the recreational vehicle industry gathered themselves to make an effort in trying to solve a problem related to health-care workers' exposure to the coronavirus, needing a temporary place to stay that would keep them separated -- out of necessity and understandable caution to protect their loved ones -- from their families. 

A movement has started across the country reflecting motor homes and other recreational vehicles standing unused in view of public health guidelines cautioning people not to travel at a time when the border between Canada and the United States is temporarily closed, and so is the border between Ontario and Quebec, leaving people unable to access their summer cottages; RV camping areas and tourism sites closed while the international community battles COVID-19.

At the same time public health guidelines caution first responders and health care workers to find alternative places to sleep rather than returning to their homes after their workplace shifts in fear of transmitting the dread coronavirus to their family members. This was the dilemma facing Rick Stewierski. And then he heard of a growing movement to loan out motorhomes to health-care workers.

2018 Cruise Radiance 28QD.

Nikki Fannin

Going to work, when that workplace is known to be contaminated with COVID-19 does not inspire confidence that returning home afterward will not adversely affect others. Looking for alternative places to stay during this pandemic can put a strain on front-line emergency workers, both psychologically and economically. Yet the need to self-isolate for those who are required to do so for 14 days after exposure to the virus is real and must be observed.

A woman in Windsor felt it incumbent on herself to try to help those whose professionalism helps others. She knew that in the United States there was a movement to match front-line workers with RVs and other mobile shelters, and saw no reason why she shouldn't do the same. Which led her to launch a Facebook group for that purpose. Ashley Oriet's RVs for Canada's Frontline has seen a flood of requests for campers come in, as well as offers from RV owners willing to loan them out.

Her team of nine volunteer administrators log front-line workers and donors into a database, then match them by region. Entirely successfully so, to the extent that demand has outstripped supply. And nor is she the only one who sees the advantage in helping others at this time of national stress. In Peterborough, Ontario Al and Stacey Robinson, RV dealers, joined the group started by Oriet.

They had received a request from a local doctor which alerted them to the necessity of helping medical personnel find temporary accommodation to self-isolate. With the vast listing they have as a dealership of RV owners and knowing they're unable to take their vehicles to parks or camp grounds they decided to approach these contacts with a proposal to help front-line workers. Just several weeks into the venture they have united 30 front-line workers with RVs on loan which they deliver themselves.

As for Orillia's Rick Siewierski, his experience is that with the use of a loaned RV he can still be at home in a sense, since he has parked the vehicle in the driveway of his family home. He can speak with and see his pregnant wife at a safe distance, even share meals together outdoors while he 'lives' next door in the RV.

"We have amazing customers."

"We said, guys, if you have an RV and you’re not using it, and you’re comfortable with it, tell us and if we have a front-line worker that is in need, we can match the RV with the health-care worker."

Stacey Robinson, Peterborough, Ontario

Paramedic Rick Siewierski, centre, poses for a photo with his wife Mariam Siewierski, left, and Al Robinson of Great Canadian RV, near Orillia, Ont.  HO/The Canadian Press