Courtesy Photo The Salvation Army canteen sits in the middle of 2nd Avenue during a large fire that damaged the Thunder Bay Theatre.

ALPENA — The Alpena Salvation Army still needs dedicated volunteers to work the organization’s emergency service canteen, which serves food and drinks to survivors and first responders during times of disaster.

The canteen is a truck with a kitchen as its body and a window and moveable shade on the side through which volunteers serve people.

The canteen needs a minimum of two people to get to an emergency and help others, but Maj. Prezza Morrison, corps officer and pastor of the Alpena Salvation Army, is hoping to bring in five consistent volunteers for shift rotation in rare cases that the canteen needs to be in service for long durations.

“If we can have a total of five people, that’d be better,” Morrison said. “They would not all work there at once, but let’s say Joe and Joyce had to go out to a fire the night before. I would then call the other two people and say, ‘Hey, can you go out and do it? Joe and Joyce were out last night.’ If it’s a long-term situation like the missing person, which I think they spent two or three days at that location — we can switch off every eight hours.”

Morrison said that one individual has reached out to be a canteen volunteer, but she is still looking for more people to be a part of the team.

She said the time spent volunteering can vary, which is what often deters people, but that they also work to be flexible with other schedules.

“I know people are really busy,” Morrison said. “There’s a lot of things people can volunteer for in the community and it’s very hard to pick and choose. That’s why we try to make this very flexible. You won’t be doing disasters every single day. It may only be once a month, and maybe not even that. It may be that we call you in for more of the pop-up pantry stuff – you can say, ‘Hey, I can only work on these days,’ and we can say that’s okay, we can use your time for the pantry distribution.”

Joe and Joyce Demski started volunteering with the canteen in 2011. Volunteers were also scarce back then, but the couple has since become the two most consistent volunteers in the canteen. As time moves on, the Demskis are growing older and finding it more difficult to work the truck.

“The Salvation Army here needed someone to replace two people, and, at first, it was just us,” Joyce Demski said in a previous report from The News. “We like what we do and we wanted to give back. The two of us just work really well together and we were confident in our ability to do this.”

Anyone looking to volunteer will need to go through a training session with the Salvation Army, but those looking to drive the canteen must acquire a chauffeur’s license. Morrison said the Salvation Army is happy to help out in the process as much as possible.

Salvation Army has a webpage that further explains the disaster services it provides and what volunteers do with the organization. There is also a catalog of training regiments going on at different branches that anyone can register for.

To visit the website, go to disaster.salvationarmyusa.org.

Anyone wanting to join the volunteer services should contact Morrison at 989-766-3224 or prezza.morrison@usc.salvationarmy.org.

“One of the most fulfilling volunteer services that I do is the disaster services,” Morrison said. “You feel good because you’re giving to somebody else. And we all need that – we all need each other. We have to work together to solve problems in our community.”