Shannon moved from the United Kingdom to Canada when she was just 7 years old, and describes a night at a gas station when she was fascinated by a couple of Canadian Mounties dressed in red serge, with their vehicles blue lights flashing. It must have been foreshadowing for what was to come, because the 23-year old went on to become fascinated with criminal justice.
After graduating from high school, Shannon took a criminal justice course at Langara College. While studying, she found out about the prospect of volunteering at local Community Policing Centres, so she sought out to find the closest CPC to her house; the Hastings-Sunrise CPC. She later went on to finish her degree at the Justice Institute of BC, and is now a Program Leader for the Safety Team at the Hastings-Sunrise CPC.
“The more you invest yourself in whatever it is that you do, the better off you will be.” – Shannon SeilerShannon has now been volunteering at the Hastings Sunrise Community Policing Centre for 3 years. The way she describes volunteering is almost addictive — more she volunteered, the more interested she became; trying out different programs that the CPC had to offer. She later transitioned to the CPC’s Business Safety Team, and has since been their awesome program leader for the last year and a half. When it comes to grabbing a bite to eat or a cup of coffee when at work, Shannon rattles off a number of area staples we’ve all grown to love. “Laughing Bean Coffee is just up the road,” she enthuses, “and there’s lots of Pho spots with tons of variety in our neighbourhood.” She describes the area as very friendly, accessible, and filled with a growing variety of shops and services. When we ask if Shannon has any advice to those who might want to learn more about the neighbourhood they live in, she says volunteering is the perfect way to do just that. “If you really want to make an effort to figure out the community that you live in, volunteering provides that,” Shannon says. “And the more you’re going to appreciate how lucky you are to live in the neighbourhood — and Canada in particular. The more you invest yourself in whatever it is that you do, the better off you will be.”