Saskatoon patrol group keeping people safe during extreme heat
With high temperatures again this week, one local street patrol group is expecting to be busy.
The Okihtcitawak Patrol in Pleasant Hill has been faced with some unique challenges so far this summer with the extreme temperatures.
The group works year round helping those who are out on the streets or out and about in the neighbourhood.
One of the staff, Delano Kennedy, said they have been dealing with an increase in needle pick ups over the past year but have shifted focus since the temperatures increased.
“We make sure people are hydrated, making sure they’re not going through heat exhaustion or if they’re experiencing heat stroke. This heat wave is really something,” Kennedy told CTV News.
Kennedy along with about 30 volunteers are now carrying extra water and freezies to help people deal with the heat.
“People sleeping out in the front street or in the alley or sleeping directly out in the sun so we have to wake them up … make sure they’re not going through a heat stroke.”
Storm Night grew up in Pleasant Hill and has been volunteering with the group for the past year and says the reaction they get from people in the community is rewarding.
The group helps between 20 and 50 people every day.
“We’ve caught people sleeping on the sidewalk, sleeping under trees and we want to make sure they don’t get heat stroke or dehydration so we make sure we will pay attention to that and check on them.
“We have a few people that we regularly check on and we know where they stay so we’ll go see them and make sure they’re all doing OK,” Storm Night said.
The patrol group also hands out hygiene products, granola bars and they carry naloxone kits in case of an overdose.
Kennedy says, they don’t receive formal funding so welcome any donations.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.