Vermont flood response: where creativity meets caring

Sandra Erickson can create new beginnings out of rubble. The 73-year-old artist watched Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers demolish her crumbling garage, which is attached to the house she’s lived in since January 2002.

When catastrophic flooding hit the area on July 10-11, 2023, the Winooski River overflowed, sending water into Erickson’s home—built in 1890 and previously a general store—and structurally weakening the garage. On the same dates in 2024, the area was again deluged with six inches of rain, flooding the first level of her home, and causing the already-damaged garage to become completely unsafe.

MDS volunteers removed the pieces of the garage they could get to by hand, then attached a chain to a truck to pull the rest of the structure down.

As she watched, Erickson had mixed feelings. “The garage just had a new roof, and that’s sad,” she said as she watched the shingles get loaded onto the truck. “On the other hand, it means I get to stay here.

“I can look at my garden while I sit and make pottery,” she added. “I’m living the dream.”

With a new kiln on its way—her old one was destroyed in the latest flood—she’s ready to focus on what she loves, not what she’s lost. “I’m a creative person,” she said. “I know what to do.”

Some of the MDS volunteers removing the garage and repairing other areas in her home were participants in the MDS Summer Youth Program, a weeklong service experience designed for high schoolers.

G.B. Fairfield, a 15-year-old student at Eastern Mennonite High School, said she’s eager to serve with MDS again. “I’m definitely coming back,” she said, adding that she’s considering opting for MDS service as part of the school’s experiential learning term.

Fairfield enjoyed meeting the homeowners she helped during her week in Vermont. “Some made us baked goods. Another from Ghana made us special chicken and rice—so good!” she said.

Intergenerational joy

Working in Vermont took on an intergenerational aspect as the youth were, in some homes, joined by volunteers from the MDS RV Program, an opportunity for 55+ adults who want to help clean up, repair, and rebuild after a disaster while living in their RVs.

The RVers stayed for six weeks in Vermont, camped together in a small cluster of RVs—and they stayed even when the most recent flooding struck. “We were on standby to evacuate all night, but it turns out we didn’t have to,” said Pamela Haskin, co-director for the RV Program in Vermont. “We didn’t sleep much but we got to stay.”

Haskin and other RV volunteers—among many other repair jobs—drywalled and mudded a new ceiling for homeowner Donna Madore, who lives in Barre. “I was flabbergasted that people would help like this,” said Madore, who realized black mold was creeping up her walls because she could not keep the house dry.

“My grandkids couldn’t come over because of the mold,” said Madore who, facing osteoporosis, has to be careful about lifting or exerting too much.

“The volunteers fixed it so quickly,” she said. “I wish I could express my gratitude. Like my daughter said: ‘Mom, you couldn’t ask for better people.’”