Saying Thanks to Joanne Thibault

For the past five months we have reaped the benefits of having Joanne Thibault as an (almost) full-time volunteer here in our Mercy Ships Canada office. Alumni members will remember Joanne as a crew member, Communication Team Writer and Engineering Administrator during her three years of service onboard the Africa Mercy. Joanne served in Togo, Guinea; Congo and Madagascar.

This past fall, Joanne drove from Ontario and rented accommodations here in Victoria with the purpose of helping to develop a Speaker’s Network. Tasks involved data base grooming, HR record verification and finally reaching out to our Alumni to determine who might be willing to be a Mercy Ships speaker. Resources were identified and ‘how to’ tip sheets and reports written.  Along the way, several speaking events were booked and finalized. Throughout the process, Joanne opened thousand of volunteer records and contacted hundreds of volunteers.

With her project here complete, Joanne now returns to Ontario via Minnesota, where she will resume previous volunteer activities at a Monastery located there. During that time of service, Joanne hopes to hear that her next assignment will be ready to start in the summer – volunteering with the Scarborough Mission in British Guiana. A consummate volunteer, Joanne gives her exceptional skills to a variety of endeavours including animal rescue, environmental, advocacy, spiritual and heath initiatives. As a professional volunteer, Joanne continues to sacrifice self for the needs of others.

The good news is that in return for all of her efforts here, Joanne fell in love with all that Vancouver Island has to offer. When her next volunteer assignment is complete, Joanne plans to pull up her Ontario roots and become a full-time transplant here in the Pacific north-west. (Who can blame her?)

We thank Joanne for her excellent and hard work here at Mercy Ships Canada. We are pleased to know it is not “Good-bye”… but simply… “See you later”! Please pray for Joanne that the path will become clear and that the next volunteer chapter will evolve as it should.

Safe travels Joanne!