You’ve been transferred in and your family doesn’t know a soul in the city. With a million thoughts running through your head about who to call for a babysitter or where to get a decent chicken dinner, a representative from the Welcome Wagon knocks on your door with a care package and a smile.
“Having lived in the community all the time, I've never experienced how a person must feel when all of a sudden – boom – you’re dropped in a new community: ‘Where do I go for this? What do I do for that?’” said Anna Vollmer, explaining what prompted her to sign up as a representative for the first time.
She said that it’s all about the idea of being able to reach out to these new residents of the city and provide them with something. That measure of comfort often makes all of the difference in people’s first perceptions of St. Albert.
Welcome Wagon has been in operation in this city for more than 50 years and around Canada for closer to a century. Its objective is to greet people moving into communities with more than just open arms and open hearts. It offers a service of reassurance that even though you’re new in town doesn’t mean that you have to feel alone and lost.
It also offers a gift basket of brochures for local services and facilities like the St. Albert Public Library and Servus Place, along with some coupons for restaurants and other businesses. For its Birth of Baby program, often the gift basket comes with samples of baby cream and other supplies that new parents might be happy to have.
The Community Welcome Wagon program and the Birth of Baby program each see about 20 to 25 visits per month. If it takes a village to raise a child, then this is just one set of hands helping the new parents out.
“With new parents, their whole life has changed in a big way. I've been there and it is a big change. Every little bit helps.”
For Candace Newton, being a new mom means she has more than enough things to worry about. After Vollmer dropped by with her Birth of Baby care package, she only had one reaction.
“It's super fantastic,” she exclaimed, noting that she learned about it from a friend. “It was really great to just get a handle on all the programs and stuff that are offered through the city. It's really great to hear and be told what resources are offered. I totally appreciate that.”
It also gave Newton a chance to learn about the Community program.
Vollmer loves getting out to meet new people and helping them to get to know the city better. Welcome Wagon thrives on word of mouth and its newspaper ads to find more newcomers and new parents. Some people first make contact through its website a welcomewagon.ca. It also has the side benefit of promoting local businesses and professionals who advertise through the program.
She added that there’s a need for more volunteer representatives as well. She said that it was a great job for her to take after she retired 11 years ago and she thinks that there are many other people who would enjoy it just as much. Anyone can call her up at 780-458-7986 or send her an email at [email protected] to learn more.
