Pascal Schuback: Strengthening community resilience through volunteerism
By Rachel Friederich, Serve Washington Communications
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND--When disaster strikes, communities rely on both trained professionals and dedicated volunteers. Pascal Schuback is both. As an experienced emergency manager, he brings his expertise to his volunteer service with Bainbridge Prepares, helping the community build resilience and prepare for disasters.
In 2024 Schuback:
· Led the design, procurement and build out of a community based and built Emergency Operations Center for the City of Bainbridge Island, equipping it with essential networking, monitoring, and backup systems.
· Maintained the BPNet, a network of technological systems to increase the resiliency of Bainbridge Island's emergency communications needs. Integrated mobile network kits for a variety of locations across the island and demonstrated how these systems can work in a disaster during the annual Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction and Rummage Sale. The TechOps teams used this one-day event as training to provide network support to thousands of visitors for this one-day event which raised over $800,000 for local nonprofits last year.
· Supported emergency management agencies in updating to current and upcoming technology resources.
· Co-Led a drone response team on which local fire departments rely for search and rescue and damage assessment missions and was instrumental in the acquisition of an enterprise class drone.
· Shared his expertise at the Washington State Emergency Management Conference to help other communities build effective disaster response systems.
Beyond Bainbridge Prepares, Schuback leads the Cascadia Region Work Group (CREW.org) and CrisisCommons, two nonprofits dedicated to disaster resilience and emergency response. His volunteer commitment extends to supporting the local senior center's technical needs and ensuring access to technology and backup power for vulnerable populations.
Since 2020, Schuback's service has directly strengthened Bainbridge Island's ability to respond to crises, from the bomb cyclone in Fall 2024 to the severe winter cold snap in the previous winter. His leadership in emergency management and technical resources supports programs like Map Your Neighborhood and empowering residents to take preparedness into their own hands, giving them the knowledge to help each other increase their resilience during emergencies.
For Schuback, volunteering is about using skills to help others in critical moments.
"It's all about the community. My community is my home and how can I help my community?" If I can help them prepare and become resilient, it reduces a lot of anxiety and stress and can make a situation a little less daunting. If I can share my knowledge to help people prepare and reduce their stress in a disaster, and that can make all the difference."
About Bainbridge Prepares: Bainbridge Prepares' mission is "to ensure our town and surrounding communities will be resilient in the face of natural disasters. We view community preparedness through a lens of love rather than fear."
It operates in partnership with the Bainbridge Island Fire Department and The City of Bainbridge Island. It has more than 725 volunteers and more than 20 teams with different focuses like child safety reunification, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Map Your Neighborhood, Domestic Animal Care, Food Resilience and more.
Learn more about volunteer opportunities with Bainbridge Prepares:
