Examples of winning written award nominations

List the contributions of this patroller at the zone, division or national level. Maximum 500 words

Bradley joined the Canadian Ski Patrol in the 2003-2004 season. His enthusiasm and involvement were quickly recognized as evidenced by his countless hours of volunteer service that he gave his first year and continues to give today for Muskoka Zone. In Brad’s first year of patrolling, he was awarded the highly coveted “Rookie of the Year” award. In 2005 and 2006 Brad’s heavy involvement with the patrol continued and he responded to the most accidents within the zone and was subsequently awarded the zone’s “Paperwork” award. That same year however Brad was awarded “Patroller of the Year” for Muskoka Zone. This award is given to the individual who exemplifies outstanding commitment, positive attitude and a drive to go above and beyond. And, for the next several years Brad continued on that path forward and upwards. In 2007 Brad was awarded a zone appreciation award and in 2009 Brad was awarded an Ontario Division Award. Brad however has become even more active in his involvement with the patrol taking a keen interest in the operations end of things. In 2009 Brad became a member of the Muskoka Zone executive and although this zone is quite small and therefore does not have an official vice-president of operations, Brad, in essence, assumed all operations-type responsibilities with professionalism and passion. The former zone president began to delegate more responsibility to Brad, and it was a natural transition for Brad to be elected to the position of zone president in 2011.

What has been the impact of these contributions? Maximum 500 words

Brad’s transition to zone president was not without some challenges. Muskoka Zone had lost its presence in the community and Brad’s strategic plan was to increase the zone’s presence as well as advocate for Muskoka Zone Canadian Ski Patrol as the premier first aid service in the community. Slowly but surely, this has been happening within the Muskoka community. Through Brad’s tireless advertising of the CSP within the community, Muskoka Zone has provided services at numerous four-season events and has become the No. 1 requested first aid provider within the District of Muskoka. In the 2011-2012 season Brad’s awareness and conscientiousness for Ontario Division and national policies and timelines earned Muskoka Zone the Ontario Division Doug Wilson Administration Award. In the fall of 2012, Brad successfully negotiated with the area management of Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area the purchase of 15 new uniform vests for the zone. With long-term planning in mind, Brad’s desire to have a Muskoka Zone patrol present as unified and cohesive is paying off. The morale of Muskoka Zone is extremely high. Brad is highly respected not only by fellow patrollers but by the ski area management, the provincial park officials in the community, the various community event coordinators and by the zone executive as well as the Ontario Division executive. It is with great pride and respect that I put forth Bradley Redwood’s name for recognition of a National Appreciation Award.

CONTRIBUTIONS – What programs, actions, initiatives has the patroller been significantly involved with that has contributed to the growth, development and improvement of the CSP since receiving their National Appreciation Award. Highlight the individual’s leadership role within these contributions (Max 500 words)

Since receiving his National Appreciation Award, No. 1607, in 2013, Brad has continued to promote, support and contribute to the CSP in all aspects of general day to day patrolling as well as through the administrative/operational day to day expectations of patrolling. Brad has held three terms as president of Muskoka Zone. In those terms, he has continued to raise the profile of the CSP in general as a four-season operation of highly trained, advanced first aid services.

From strictly zone perspective Brad has ensured his zone is financial stable and fiscally responsible. He has embraced rebranding within his zone and did so in an exceptionally timely manner, shortly after the introduction of the new colours. This 2015-2016 season Brad ensured that all Muskoka Zone patrollers were in new uniforms and maintaining a professional appearance in all four- season events as well as on both the alpine and Nordic venues. The purchase of the new uniforms was wisely budgeted for and viewed as a priority to support and embrace national's rebranding.

Brad has done an exceptional job in creating an awareness of the system within his membership and has committed more time and energy than many patrollers in the system. Brad embraces the Canadian Ski Patrol whole heartedly and this is felt within his membership at all levels from new patrollers to well-seasoned patrollers.

Brad continues to show leadership and dedication both at a zone level as well as a division level of the Canadian Ski Patrol. He is highly regarded by his zone membership and has earned this respect from the ground up. He is respected by his colleagues within Ontario Division and again, this respect has been earned from the ground up. Brad supports the goals of the Canadian Ski Patrol while furthering the goals and objectives of the system.

I respectfully submit his name to be considered for the Canadian Ski Patroller Award.

CSP Involvement - What has been the impact of these contributions and how have these contributions contributed to the growth of the CSP and at what level? Maximum 500 words

From a community involvement perspective Brad has enhanced the presence of the Muskoka Zone in the Muskoka District primarily in four-season events. Thanks to Brad the Muskoka Zone team has become the primary provider of first aid services within Huntsville and surrounding communities. Some events that Brad has independently coordinated include: the annual Muskoka River X - the 24-hour 130 km expedition canoe race; Muskoka 70.3 Triathalon; Band on the Run; Muskoka Bathtub Derby; OFSSA Nordic Championships; and in conjunction with other local providers: Full Ironman; and annual Muskoka Loppett. Brad has raised the presence of our small zone and the CSP in general.

From a zone administrative and operational perspective Brad has implemented within Muskoka Zone, a succession plan. After three terms as zone president Brad has ensured the zone has roles and responsibilities taken care of when he moves on. Brad maintains an exceptional eye for detail and ensures everything, from the last patroller's hour, are documented and acknowledged. Brad's involvement does not end there, Brad continues to be an active first aid and on snow IT. He participates and instructs rookies as well as supports his educational department to be creative in the delivery of the materials for both recruits and returning patrollers. Brad is also a Red Cross First Aid Instructor and this is done through the CSP. Every dollar earned through Red Cross First Aid courses is given back to Muskoka Zone to enhance their training needs and equipment. Brad continues to ensure the annual Muskoka Ski Swap is operational and in the last two years has had the two best net earnings in Muskoka Zone's history. Brad also gives more than his time and effort into patrol shifts than any other patroller within the zone. Muskoka introduced a new recognition in 2013 - the Muskoka Zone Century Club membership - to recognize patrollers that contributed more than 100 hours in shift time. Brad has continually been a part of this club membership netting well over 150 hours of shift time on-snow per season. A challenging thing to do given Ontario skiing and crazy weather.

From a zone and division level, Brad continues to be a contributing member to the division. Brad supports Central Zone ski swaps and has introduced his swap programming to a Central Zone ski area. Brad was involved in the Ontario Division strategic planning events and has been a developer and contributor to the Worker’s Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) standard first aid course and the new business model. Brad supports other zones in first aid ICP courses as well as supporting patrol days when a zone reaches out for help. Brad has further taken part in the North Bay Special Olympics and the PanAm Games as a member of the CSP and is an avid supporter every year of World Snow Day. Brad is exceptionally well versed in the national bylaws as well as all documentation specific to the operations of the CSP from a national and a division level.

Other comments (maximum of five (5) sentences or points).

Brad is quiet and shy and very humble. In 2014 he received the national Zone Development of the Year award. His zone membership was extremely proud of this accomplishment on behalf of the work Brad has done for the zone. Brad won the Ontario Division Public Relations Award in 2014 for his work on the Muskoka Zone website as well as within the realm of social media for both Muskoka Zone and Ontario Division as a whole. Muskoka Zone was also the winner of the 2016 President's Award at the division level.

List the involvement of each patroller. Beside each name, state the role(s)/responsibility(s) of the patroller during this rescue. Use one line per patroller. Describe the Incident in chronological order: Who, What, Where, When, How

Who: Kerri Loudoun (first patroller on the scene), Jordan Delamere (second patroller on the scene), retired CSP member Cornel Parvulescu (first bystander on scene).

What: A 32-foot pine tree snapped in heavy winds and fell onto a skiing guest while waiting in the lift line, rendering the patient unconscious and severely injured.

Where: At the base of the main chair lift, immediately outside the resort’s chalet; the area is where all guests line up before entering to load the lift (the lift maze).

When: Feb 15, 2023, at 9:40 a.m., 10 minutes after the hill opened

How: Due to extremely high winds, a tree with about a one-foot diameter at its base snapped and fell into the lift maze area, coming straight down onto the head of a 66-year-old male resort member who had just come to start his skiing day.

On the morning of Feb 15, 2023, a season’s pass holder male 66 years old was seriously injured after a 30-foot pine tree snapped in the high winds and fell onto the skier while standing in the lift line.

Kerri and Jordan had just finished opening two of the three chair lifts and were in the middle of opening the western part of the resort property. While checking toboggans, an urgent call came over the patrol radio channel:

“Patrol, call 911 NOW; we need assistance at the load of Chair 1, call 911 RIGHT NOW”.

It is not the ski area’s protocol to call for patrol assistance and for 911 services at the same time (typically ski patrol completes assessment and then requests EMS to be activated), so in a matter of seconds, Jordan grabbed the trauma bag that the patrollers had just placed inside the top lift shack - containing an AED, O2 and airway management, pelvic stabilization device and bleeding supplies - and then both patrollers skied fast over the main chair lift. Within 70 seconds of the radio call, both Kerri and Jordan were on the scene.

Without any indication of the severity of the injury Kerri and Jordan were about to encounter, the two patrollers saw a large, long tree trunk and tree debris littering the lift loading area and three ski instructors surrounding a skier appearing to be unresponsive on the ground. As soon as the patrollers arrived, retired CSP member Cornel (who was on shift as a ski instructor this morning) advised that the patient had just been crushed under the tree.

Before the patrol arrived on the scene, Cornel quickly went to stabilize the patient’s head and instructed his fellow ski instructors and lift attendants to very carefully lift the tree off the patient and off to the side. Before the patrollers could put the patient in an anatomical position, the group had to remove the maze fence from underneath him carefully. Working to maintain axial alignment, the group, under the direction of Kerri, shifted the patient while one of the ski instructor bystanders slowly slid the maze fence out.

It was quickly evident that the patient’s airway was risking obstruction as he was foaming red foam at the mouth. A quick assessment indicated that he was barely verbal on the AVPU scale but was managing to breathe independently, although somewhat struggling, not quite gasping. Kerri quickly took out suction and had the BMV, O2 tank and OPAs at hand if the patient lost consciousness and further airway management and oxygen delivery were required. Jordan monitored vitals of breathing rate, pulse, and skin colour and looked for obvious deformities of limbs.

The next step was getting a C-collar on the patient. Before they could, they removed the patient’s ski helmet with Cornel’s help. However, each time they went to apply the cervical collar, the patient started to spit up more foam. By the third attempt to get the collar on the patient and using the suction four times, paramedics arrived on the scene. The time on the scene, before EMS arrived to take over, was about seven minutes.

Once EMS took over the scene, Kerri and Jordan assisted them with applying the cervical collar and log roll to get the patient onto their scoop stretcher, removing ski boots, applying pelvic stabilization, and providing detailed information to fire and paramedic personnel. Luckily none of the 80-plus primary school children who were on site for a field trip had made it to this ski lift for their first run, nor were there any other of our regular weekday members in this lift loading area. Also, luckily the lift operator who organizes the maze was not in the path of the tree that fell.

Had this accident occurred on a busy Saturday, the tree would have come down on at least 20 different people of all ages, and there could have been many more life-threatening injuries.

Highlight any challenges encountered at the scene.

The biggest challenge that Kerri and Jordan faced was not being able to do a full primary assessment, as ABCDs were the biggest priority. And since the patient was not speaking, only moaning, it was not possible to get clear information from him; the ultimate focus was to keep his airway open, his neck and spine stabilized, and circulation going.

The second challenge was how to best support the bystanders on the scene and within inches of the tree hitting them. The three ski instructors were in the lift line ahead of the patient and were moments away from it falling on them. Had the tree come down even seconds earlier, it would have hit all three ski instructors plus one of the two lift operators. The emotional toil of “what could have happened” was felt by all resort staff, especially because the resort had a large school group on site that day, and the group of 80-plus primary school children was 10 minutes away from coming to line up at this lift.

What were the injuries of the patient(s)?

The patient was later diagnosed at the hospital with a fractured pelvis, fractured shoulder, concussion with a brain bleed, and internal bleeding in the pelvic region. He was taken into surgery immediately to address the fractured pelvis but required a second surgery after the severity of the internal injuries was noted by doctors and surgeons. He was in the ICU for two full weeks as the doctors monitored his brain injury and outcome after his two surgeries.

What was the outcome of the patient(s) treatment?

The patient remained in the hospital for about three weeks and will be starting a very long journey of rehabilitation at an in-patient medical facility in the city, with anticipated alterations required to his home to assist him with daily activities.Resort management was informed that the patient did not recall the accident but did have reasonable long- and short-term memory and while his retirement (which he had just started this year) didn’t go how he planned, his family (his wife being a ski instructor at the resort and was on the property when the accident occurred) were very appreciative of the quick response to help the patient and get him to advanced medical care quickly.

Describe the public relations project/activity. Maximum 500 words.

The Ski Vorlage social media team, comprised of Ian Potvin and Graham Ramstead (not to forget all of the Vorlage patrol team behind them) debuted their social media adventure (Instagram and Facebook) in the 2022-2023 ski season, with their first posts on Facebook and Instagram on February 2 and February 4, 2023, respectively. Since that date, they have posted more than 30 professionally edited videos on Instagram and shared more than 25 patroller’s bios on Facebook accompanied by professional pictures taken by Andre Forget, their pro  photographer resident. So far, they have gained a solid 290 followers across both platforms – in such a short time!

Through the use of a conversational AI system, Ian and Graham have asked many questions to come up with the perfect recipe of what an ideal approach would be to focus on recruitment for specific demographic.

With Vorlage being a fairly small resort, recruitment of new patrollers has always been a challenge. Ian and Graham’s fun and entertaining videos with messaging to encourage prospective patrollers to reach out for more information have been consistent throughout the content they post. The focus is set on demonstrating that the patrol is a fun volunteering second job. The call to action is always simple and clear.

Not only have they created high-quality content with impressive video editing and sound mixing (with only an Iphone and free editing app), but they also ensure that all post captions are bilingual so they can reach out to a bigger audiences and expand possibilities. This is a very important point because it aligns with the approach that CSP national uses when communicating through social media channels with its external audiences (i.e. the public). The amount of time the two put into capturing raw footage with the help of their “best patrol team in Canada” (quoting them here), as well as the hours upon hours spent editing each video, is evident when you view the end product. As far as communications tools go, I have yet to see social media content as concise and reflective of the comradery and spirit that is the Canadian Ski Patrol.

Their innovative social media content (without any resources from CSP national aside from official logos), is an excellent example of how to use free social media tools to reach a desired goal.

@pcs.csp_vorlage_patrol | Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/pcs.csp_vorlage_patrol/

CSP-PCS Vorlage Patrol | Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089795899865

How was the image of the CSP enhanced? Maximum 500 words

The image of the CSP is enhanced through their commitment to bilingual captions, but also reflective of diversity and inclusivity amongst their patrol team. For example, one of their videos showcases a number of their female patrollers. Ian and Graham’s methodical approach to creating content that is aligned with the diversity of the guests they serve at their resort is aligned with efforts taking place at national through the equity, diversity and inclusion committee. All of this without any communication with this committee.

This pair are paying close attention to the changing landscape of our industry and are doing their part to represent the CSP exactly as I would expect all patrol teams to present themselves in terms of the CSP’s values and ethos. They are showcasing how patrollers work strongly in a team environment, how they work hard in their role of providing first aid services, but also how fun being in a patrol team is! They showcase the joys of getting first tracks, the type of practice scenarios they work on throughout the season, and overall what it is like being a member of the Ski Vorlage patrol team.

They also show their personality, which I feel is important because while the CSP is a national organization, it’s not a monolith, and each patrol team across the country is unique in its own way, and the uniqueness of the Ski Vorlage patrol team is woven throughout all of their social media content.

Their videos have garnered more than 25,000 views and counting, demonstrating their significant reach in the online space. Ski Canada Magazine and In-The-Snow, a U.S.-based company, have expressed their admiration by sharing and liking their videos on social media, doing so on three separate occasions. Ski Canada Magazine even went as far as mentioning them in one of their stories, stating, "That's how you recruit people at smaller ski hills in 2023." We need to note that the local newspaper, local business and the Ski Vorlage shares their posts on their own socials often.

Numerous fellow patrollers from across Canada have left congratulatory comments on their social media posts, illustrating the impact of their hard work in fostering a stronger sense of unity among patrollers in their zone. Moreover, their efforts have helped uplift people and overcome the past three years of unprecedented sad seasons. Through their outstanding work, they are making the CSP shine bright, with plans to expand their social media reach out further during the upcoming 2024-2025 ski season.

What challenges if any were encountered? Maximum 500 words.

The biggest challenge is creating all this amazing content on a shoestring budget. And by a shoestring, I mean a budget of zero dollars! The amount of additional hours of time to do video edits of this nature is honestly unexpected unless you’re familiar with the scope of video editing. A 30-second video might take upwards of nine hours to edit! So, finding additional spare time outside of scheduled patrol shifts is a big challenge.

Also, a challenge all content creators face when using social media is copyright rules when using popular songs and clips.

A third challenge the two faced was convincing as many of their teammates to be IN the videos! Not everyone is comfortable being on camera. As well, capturing enough usable raw footage to edit can be tricky. Often, one doesn’t know until they sift through hours of clips they have a small number that is suitable to edit into a longer video.

And finally the pair faced the elephant in the room - how to make your content go viral so you can reach as much of their intended audience as possible. Ian and Graham had to reach out through their personal networks and contacts at the resort and convince these individuals and entities to like and share their content. With the speed at which social media algorithms change, there is no longer a sure-fire way to ensure your content goes viral, but with a little bit of nudging and having one or two BIG social media accounts sharing your content, the Ski Vorlage ski patrol team has been able to see some traction of their content so far!

State the short-term/long-term benefits of this project/activity (maximum 500 words).

The most significant proof of the effectiveness of their efforts to date is they have communicated closely with seven persons who has officially enrolled and completed their on-snow training and about another 10 prospective patrollers who are serious about registering and started their training in the fall of 2023. In comparison to previous years, the average of new recruits were about two to four patrollers. They also continue to see steady follower growth on both Instagram and Facebook. They are clearly motivated to continue to create entertaining and informative content (teasing lots of fun to come before the next winter season), which could be harnessed if they desire to bring in local monetary donations or even pro-deal sponsorship opportunities.