Mark Vonesch - working with Cortes Island's volunteer community

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It is almost two months until the October 15, 2022, election. So far, Mark Vonesch is the only one to put their name up as a candidate for Cortes Island’s Regional Director.

In the fourth of a series arising from an interview with Vonesch, he was asked what he would bring to the office from his years of experience working in Cortes Island’s volunteer community.

It has been 17 years since Vonesch founded Reel Youth, a non-profit that uses filmmaking to teach youth how to use filmmaking to speak about the issues they care about. He has facilitated a series of films that bring youth and seniors together.

During this time Vonesch has also played an active role on the boards of organizations like the Linnaea farm society, the Cortes Island Parent Advisory council, Cortes Literacy Now, the Friends of Channel Rock Society, and the Southern Cortes Community Association.

“I know how to work with people. I know how to participate on a board level in a way that allows us to come together and create solutions,” he explained.

“Volunteerism is a key part of being in this community. I hear from a lot of older folks in the island Cortez used to be a place where everyone volunteered and we were really in this together. We did things together and we made things happen through volunteering. I think that's really important.”

Vonesch added, “I also think we live in a different time now in that families are more stressed out and it's more challenging for everyone to play a significant volunteer role in the island, especially when they have housing instability and/or job insecurity.”

While he finds it encouraging that folks are asking ‘what can you do for this community?’ Vonesch said we also need to recognize that a lot of the challenges we face are not necessarily going to be solved through volunteering.

“We need a whole broad way of solutions to deal with our challenges.”