BP Program Director Wins WA Volunteer Service Award

Pascal Schuback, our Program Director, was just selected as a recipient of the 2025 Washington State Volunteer Service Award for the Peninsula/Coastal Region.

The award recognizes Shuback’s service with Bainbridge Prepares. He was nominated by our Executive Director, Loren Bast, who said this about Schuback: “Pascal’s service has allowed our volunteer group to better respond to local emergencies such as the bomb cyclone in the fall of 2024 as well as the severe cold snap during the winter. His work with our Map Your Neighborhood communities initiative has helped individual neighbrohoods learn to prepare to take care of each other when disaster overwhelms professional first responders. In addition to running two of his own nonprofit organizations and committing numerous hours to ours, he assists many other nonprofits on Bainbridge Island and in Kitsap County. . . .”

More specifically, Shuback is being recognized for

• Leading the design, procurement, and build out of our city’s Emergency Operations Center, equipping it with essential networking, monitoring, and backup systems.

• Maintaining BPNet, a network of technological systems to increase the resiliency of Bainbridge Island's emergency communications needs.

• Integrating mobile network kits for a variety of locations across the island and demonstrating during the annual Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction and Rummage Sale how these systems can work in a disaster.

• Supporting emergency management agencies in updating their technology resources.

• Co-leading a drone response team serving local fire departments during search and rescue and damage assessment missions.

• Sharing his expertise at the Washington State Emergency Management Conference to help other communities build effective disaster response systems.

In addition, Schuback leads the Cascadia Region Work Group (CREW.org) and CrisisCommons, two emergency preparedness amd response nonprofits. He also works to address the Senior Center's technical needs and the technology and backup power needs of vulnerable populations.

The award is given by Serve Washington (formerly known as the Washington Commission for National and Community Service). The organization’s mission is to advance national service, volunteerism, and civic engagement to improve lives; expand opportunity to meet the local critical needs of residents of Washington; and strengthen community capacity while creating healthy and resilient communities.