A group of good Samaritans are focused on helping people in Orillia get out of situations where they are stranded, stuck, or broken down off of the road.
Orillia Off-Road Recovery is a non-licensed group of volunteers who help recover off-road vehicles like ATVs, snowmobiles and trucks that get stuck.
“A lot of times, tow companies won’t go to certain areas," said Evan Taylor, founder of the group. "We are a group who formed out of a necessity to kind of help people out."
When people get into trouble, they can reach out through the Orillia Off-Road Recovery Facebook page, and then members of the group respond and assist each other for no charge. The group has more than 14,000 members.
“The premise that we established everything on is that you can’t demand money to help people,” Taylor said. “We want to see good people going to help each other out and then ask them to pay it forward … be the next guy to go out and help somebody out.”
Orillia Off-Road Recovery has made hundreds of recoveries since it began in 2019. Each week, it receives calls for help two to three times.
“The winter is our busiest time of the year with Lake Simcoe,” Taylor said. “It’s been relatively slow this year because people haven’t been able to get on the lake.”
Taylor said members of the group are told to avoid any situation that puts them in danger. However, they do have a select few members who are professionally trained to do recoveries. Taylor is a professionally trained ice diver.
“I can dive under the ice if it’s required, but we don’t encourage anybody to do anything like that where it can be dangerous,” he said. “We want people to help each other where it’s safe to do so.”
Taylor is hoping that one day his group will expand to communities across Ontario.
“I would like to see it where you can go to any place in Ontario and you could post and find other people who would help you,” he said. “That’s kind of my goal.”
Already the group has grown exponentially. People from all over Ontario follow on Instagram and TikTok.
“One of our videos hit 3.5 million views. We have quite the social media following,” Taylor said. “We’ve had people reach out from other counties who follow us.”
Taylor thanked the community and the group’s sponsors for all their support over the years.
