Volunteers with the Central New Hampshire MRC are active not just in helping their community but also with supporting the unit’s sustainability. The unit serves 18 communities in central New Hampshire, while predominantly rural, their coverage area includes two urban areas.

The unit includes four volunteer committees:

• Member Support, including recruitment
• Communications
• Community Education
• Fundraising

Over the past year the unit collaborated with local Pemi-Baker Public TV to produce, tape, edit, and air three awareness/education videos. Unit Leader Angel Ekstrom worked with unit volunteers to write video scripts and coordinate with the television station. The MRC provided a slide deck to accompany the script, which provided photos and other visuals for the video series. Staff at the station did the taping and worked with the unit to edit segments. The completed videos air on the station and are available online. The below videos are currently available with two more in the works:

• Part 1: Our Members
• Part 2: Regional Partners
• Part 3: NH Public Health Model

In addition to creating video content to raise awareness of and recruit for the unit, Education Committee volunteers write articles for the local newspaper. This is something the unit is aiming to do 4-5 times a year. One recent article focused on mental health during the holidays and included information about the MRC unit and a call to join.

Volunteers on the Fundraising Committee are writing grants and coming up with other creative activities with a goal of raising $5,000 to support unit operations. The unit raised over $300 hosting a yard sale at a volunteer’s house.

Outside of their work to ensure the sustainability of the MRC unit, volunteers support the community in a variety of areas including Hepatitis B response, Narcan education and distribution, and vector-borne disease awareness.

Community support for heat-related illness is also increasing as most community members do not have air conditioning. Volunteers help to provide information at cooling centers and do outreach to senior centers around mitigation. This includes raising awareness of air quality issues on hot days among those who may experience respiratory illnesses. The unit supports other types of household emergency preparedness including how to prepare for a long-term power outage and radon mitigation.

“The heart of our unit is our volunteers,” said Ekstrom. “We’re blessed to have a group of people willing to help the community.”