Small town volunteer effort snowballs!

Jessica Lawrence wasn’t sure how things would come together when she agreed to coordinate volunteers for a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Alberta Unit response.
But she was motivated to support a member of her community — in Carstairs, Alberta — who needed help to recover from the July 1, 2023, tornado that destroyed her home.
And Lawrence wasn’t alone. From a pool of more than 130 volunteers, 95 served with MDS for the first time.
“I have not been on a project that had this amount of local involvement in the past,” said Harold Friesen, a seasoned MDS volunteer and the project’s coordinator.
MDS typically relies on weekly and long-term volunteers to rebuild homes. This build was completed, mostly through the efforts of local, daily volunteers, in just over four months.
“I think it’s a bit like a snowball. You know, it grows… The bigger the snowball gets, the more traction there is, the more people hear about it,” Lawrence reflected. “There was so much joy on the site.”
 
Read the rest of the story at https://mds.org/story/small-town-volunteer-effort-snowballs/
 
MDS - Striving to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those affected by disasters.