Mark Sunstrum enjoys his retirement.
The long-time North Bay city worker who worked as a rink attendant at West Ferris and Pete Palangio arenas for about 20 years, hung up his Zamboni keys two years ago, but not long after retiring he felt compelled to still make a difference.
Shortly after hearing a radio commercial about volunteering, Mark decided it was something he wanted to do.
"I go out and do this a couple of days a week," said Sunstrum.
Since 2021, the 67-year-old has become a volunteer driver for the Red Cross, taking patients from North Bay to appointments which include trips to Sudbury and back.
"The value comes in helping people," he said.
"You meet a lot of different people. They are all in different states and have different problems. Just to help them out for a few hours a day because they have nobody around to help them, most are older people so obviously I am in senior transportation so that is basically all I do is drive people around for the Red Cross."
He enjoys the conversations he starts up with the patients he travels with.
"They need a hand just for a few hours to get to an appointment and they are hurting," he said.
"They want to talk while we drive and it is great to get to know them. You would be amazed how much we find out about each other in the three or four hours we are together."
Sunstrum is one of the more than 14,000 Red Cross volunteers across Canada.
The week of April 16 to 22 is National Volunteer Week and Sunstrum feels it is important for people to volunteer.
"It gets them out of the house and I think it fulfills something they are looking for just to help," he said.
"You don't need to get paid to do it, it is just something you feel you want to do. Once you start doing it you see how you are helping within the community."
Sunstrum is disappointed with the attitude some people have these days toward volunteering.
"Since I have retired I see the need because there are just so many opportunities to volunteer and so many organizations need the people," he said.
"I think volunteering has diminished over the past 10 years due to a change in lifestyle. Nowadays, everything is just so fast and people don't really slow down.
"I think if people just stepped up a little bit to help people out I think they would see that it does help the community."
Sunstrum says if you have time, step up and help your community and see what you can do.
