The Student Volunteer Army

From Spontaneous Volunteers to Mobilised Force

Luis Paterson

The Student Volunteer Army (SVA) is arguably the most enduring example of volunteerism after the earthquakes. Spade-wielding students slinging silt shattered the stereotype of the slothful, usually drunken youth and proved that takoha (service) was not absent among the younger generations. SVA Founders Sam Johnson and Jason Pemberton created a Facebook event after the 4 September 2010 earthquake titled “Student Volunteer Base for the Earthquake Clean Up.” They initially invited 200 friends – that number grew to over 2500 active volunteers participating in the clean-up effort. Johnson and the SVA team of Chris “CJ” Duncan, Tom Young, Jonas Bergler, Jade Rutherford, and Gina Scandrett gained valuable experience in managing such a large contingent of volunteers in September that served them well in February. Johnson and Pemberton were the “big ideas” guys, Duncan and Young organised buses and teams on the ground, Bergler oversaw IT and designed the frontend for the GeoOp app used to coordinate volunteer teams, and Rutherford and Scandrett managed the Facebook page and the call centre that operated out of SVA headquarters in Hornby. Together, they oversaw an estimated 1000-2000 volunteers per day during February and March 2011.

An SVA team clears liquefaction after 4 September

An SVA team clears liquefaction, 8 September 2010

Credit: University of Canterbury Photographic Services. Source: https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/object/219884

A key element of the Army’s success was its non-hierarchical structure: volunteers on the ground emphasised that “no single individual held a position of power…[the SVA] was led from the bottom and decentralised in terms of the different efforts going on.” The leadership team would make decisions as a caucus each night and squad leaders oversaw 250 people per suburb which were further subdivided into 10 teams. Volunteers assembled at the Big Top tent in the UCSA carpark in the morning (the call would be for nine but people regularly lined up from seven or earlier to ensure they got a spot on a team), were organised into squadrons of three to ten, and transported by bus or van to the work zones. Once there the squadrons would either door-knock and offer their services or respond directly to one of the 3087 total requests that were logged in the GeoOp app. ANZ donated $30,000 towards buying contractor grade wheelbarrows and food donations ensured that the Army was kept fed over the course of the day. Over 500,000 tons of liquefaction ejecta was cleared by the SVA, Farmy Army, and official City Council organisations during the earthquake sequence of 2010-2011. The SVA exists to this day, operating as university clubs across Aotearoa and as the national charity Student Volunteer Army Foundation.

SVA Big Top 1 March 11

SVA green wheelbarrows outside of the Big Top tent in the UCSA carpark, 1 March 2011

Credit: Neil Macbeth. Source: https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/object/135405

Resources

  • Canta Volume 81 Issue 19, 20 September 2010 – The issue of UC student magazine Canta published after the 4 September 2010 earthquake includes a broad report on the quake’s impact on the city (pages 14-21), including a comparison to the January earthquake in Haiti of the same year (page 16). The efforts of student volunteers in general appear alongside an "earthquake by the numbers" sidebar (page 17), and Sam Johnson recounts the how the spontaneous volunteer group that would become the Student Volunteer Army formed from a Facebook event (page 24).
  • Christchurch Press 9 September 2010: Section A, Page 3 | “Volunteer cleanup force now numbers 1000.” – Marks the first appearance of the nascent SVA in the Press. Then Social Development Minister Paula Bennett grants $5000 towards supplies.
  • Facebooking quake clean-up organiser – RNZ interview with Sam Johnson, who discusses the 4 September volunteer effort. Johnson describes the operating procedure as efficient, fun collective service and details the plan to form a Volunteer Army club to engage in one major voluntary act per term.
  • Liquefaction ejecta clean-up in Christchurch during the 2010-2011 earthquake sequence – an academic article by M. Villemure et al from the UC Department of Geological Sciences that details the creation and clean-up of liquefaction. Of particular interest is the liquefaction area map (page 4), the methodology of the Council clean-up (page 5), and the coordination/communication between Council officials and volunteers (pages 6-8).
  • Gaining ‘authority to operate’: student-led emergent volunteers and established response agencies in the Canterbury earthquakes – this 2021 academic article by Lincoln University’s Sylvia Nissen et al is a targeted examination and reflection of how the SVA interacted with Council, Civil Defence, and Government officials. Drawing from 54 interviews (35 SVA and 19 officials who liaised with the SVA), Nissen argues that the significant numbers and emergent nature of the SVA created organisational difficulties and tension between officials and volunteers (pages 842-846). Many of the volunteers were unimpressed with the “red tape” of officials’ attempts to integrate the SVA into a traditional command-and-control structure and initially followed the mantra of “it is better to ask forgiveness than seek permission,” (page 843). The SVA ultimately accrued a noteworthy “authority to operate,” after the February earthquake through a combination of eventually seeking permission to act and earning credibility from Civil Defence, political officials, and the public (pages 838-842).
  • ‘Spontaneous’ volunteers? Factors enabling the Student Volunteer Army mobilisation following the Canterbury earthquakes, 2010–2011 – 2020 academic article by Sylvia Nissen et al and Sam Johnson examining how the SVA began as a spontaneous volunteer effort in 2010 yet quickly transitioned to a mobilised and coherent force. Nissen argues that Johnson’s 2010 Facebook event and the lack of formal training allowed for a truly spontaneous response to the 4 September earthquake, yet the term is not applicable to the SVA’s subsequent work and growth. In February the SVA succeeded due to interconnected factors of having an experienced leadership team, formal university club structure, and positive public opinion and community engagement that allowed the SVA to fill the “response vacuum” of disaster clean-up (page 7).

SVA Volunteers Burwood 1 March 2011

SVA members head back to work after lunch in Burwood, 1 March 2011

Credit: Neil Macbeth. Source: https://quakestudies.canterbury.ac.nz/store/object/135441

  • Canta Volume 82 Issue 1, 23 March 2011 – The second issue of Canta published after the 22 February earthquake features a special story on the SVA (pages 12-19). The story includes interviews from key SVA organisers Sam Johnson, Chris “CJ” Duncan, Tom Young, Jonas Bergler, Jade Rutherford, and Gina Scandrett, and presents a narrative of how the SVA built on the groundwork of the entirely spontaneous 4 September 2010 response to successfully manage thousands of student volunteers. Key statistics are featured on page 15 and a “Day in the Life of the Volunteer Army” on page 18.
  • Jade Rutherford’s Story – SVA founding member Jade Rutherford’s 16 December 2011 interview as part of the National Council of Women Women’s Voices project. Rutherford describes herself as the “first volunteer” after Johnson barged into her room and asked for help the morning after the Facebook event gained momentum (page 6). She became the official secretary of the SVA over the summer of 2010-11 and in February ran the Facebook page and call centre with Gina Scandrett. Rutherford recalls the first SVA expedition to Halswell in 2010 (page 5), describes her typical February/March 2011 day at the SVA (page 11-12), the community response to the SVA (page 13-14), and the June 2011 aftershock and SVA working directly with the Farmy Army (page 14).
  • Student Volunteer Army - 28 February 2011 – A UC video report that shows a day in the life of the SVA with a particular focus on how the squadrons operated in the suburbs.
  • GeoOp - Student Volunteer Army/Christchurch Earthquake – SVA representative Louis Brown appears on a Breakfast report on 24 February 2011. Brown explains how the SVA can help and how citizens can request that help through the GeoOp app. The website in the report is no longer active.
  • Canta Volume 82 Issue 6, 4 May 2011 – Johnson and Pemberton head to Ishinomaki, Japan to teach students how to operate their own version of the SVA in the wake of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (page 9).
  • Christchurch Press 2 February 2013: Section C, Page 2 | "Viva la volunteer." – A reflective article that explores the nature of Cantabrian volunteer spirit since the earthquakes. Jason Pemberton discusses the formation of the Student Volunteer Army Foundation charity and his hopes for the future.
  • Canterbury flooding: Student Volunteer Army out and about – 2 June 2021 radio interview with Sam Johnson on the SVA assistance to farmers after the May-June flooding.
  • Archives of the official SVA website from 2013-2024.

Searches

To search the CEISMIC collection for information and resources on the SVA, get started with one of the links below.

  • For articles relating to the SVA click here
  • For material relating to SVA founder Sam Johnson click here
  • For a collection of photos of key SVA figures receiving awards click here
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