Monte Lake, B.C. – July 17-23, 2022

MDS was blessed with an incredible group of volunteers this week. We had the privilege of hosting a youth group of 15 from Bethel Church from Hochfeld, MB. Royce Boskers stayed on for a second week. Brianna Wiebe and Don O’Neill joined our crew leader group to make a total of 25 for this week.

The 4 houses have seen progress over this past week.

Eager house: The ICF blocks are complete, cement pored, the beams & floor joists well on their way.

Maisonneuve house: The electrical is almost complete, plumbing rough-in done, metal roof sheeting completed. We were all pleased to hear that inspection was approved at this point.

Sundby/Hanton house: The front deck and steps were completed. Some fencing and garden work was also done. The homeowner is doing his own wiring and it is almost completed.

Peden house: The rafters are up, plywood and metal sheeting on the roof.

We also had the privilege of serving some of the community members with odd jobs:

A neighbor of a client, whose husband was in hospital for an extended period of time, mentioned their need for assistance with some yard maintenance. We moved some gravel to give access to the pad of the burned-down garage for parking and weeded her garden. Those involved in this project enjoyed their time and seeing the progress of a clean garden. The homeowner was very grateful.

For Patricia and Pat, area residents, a couple of the volunteers carried irrigation pipes through a forest trail to replace those lost in the fire. They also planted trees for them.

MDS volunteers also planted trees for Linda.

We have had very warm weather this week. The volunteers have managed to be safe, enjoyed the visit from the cooks who brought out ice cream treats to the job sites. They even enjoyed a dip in the lake on the way back to camp and during some of the evenings.

MDS had been approached by National Film Board of Canada to film and interview clients and volunteers at the project this week. The filming crew that spent time with us were directors Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, producer Shirley Vercruysse, cinematographer Vince Arvidson  and sound recordist David Pulmer. “Incandescence” is a feature documentary of the NFB of Canada which explores the impact of wildfires in BC on both humans and the ecosystem. They made their way to all of the building sites and also joined us for supper on Wed. They plan to be back to the MDS Monte Lake project in Sept /Oct to see the progress of the homes. The film will be completed in 2024.

We had a full house for supper on Wed as we invited Don & Bev, who we did some tree planting for, John Sawatzky (our project coordinator), home owners Hal & Linda and the filming crew.

Thank you to the youth group for your diligence in working through the heat and the odd jobs you were assigned. You did great things this week!

Also thank you to others who are leaving the project this week Royce Boskers, Len & Toby Peters.

As for our Long term volunteers, we will be welcoming a new cook, Florence Walde, and our crew leaders Denis Sabourin and Sofia Epp will be coming back to Monte Lake after spending the past week at the Princeton family project.

Long term Volunteers: Ralph Hughes, Len & Toby Peters, Don O’Neill, Nathan Bartel, Abram Reimer, Brianna Wiebe, Hannah Cober, Ike & Priscilla Epp

Reporting: Priscilla Epp.