With 39 years of service under his belt, John has had many volunteer roles within Hato Hone St John including a station manager, team leader, a practising paramedic, and a member of the Selwyn Area Committee.
Karen is coming up to 28 years volunteering at Hato Hone St John. She has worked lots in events and is currently an EMT and a station manager. She has also devoted a lot of her time within the St John youth programme both nationally and internationally, on top of this she is also on the Volunteer Support Group.
As well as being active volunteers themselves, John and Karen also give their staff the flexibility to volunteer for Hato Hone St John also. The advice they want to give others who are self-employed, is that the benefit of volunteering gives themselves and staff the space to step away from the huge stress within the rural sector. John says “Volunteering gives us the opportunity to step out of the everyday challenges and concentrate on something else. It allows us to experience, socialise, understand, and grow in a different set of circumstances.”
“We are on the ground making the physical difference, within Hato Hone St John we can be the difference between life and death.”