The former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., where youth from across Canada served in 2019 as part of a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) summer youth project, officially opened on Sept. 30, 2025. Volunteers from Stirling...
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The renovated Mohawk Institute Residential School had its grand opening on Sept. 30, 2025. Attending it was a moving experience for me; an estimated 3,000 people were there, many wearing orange “Every Child Matters” shirts. Classroom with desks...
Robert Pitka thinks of MDS volunteers as good workers—and good listeners, too. The tribal administrator for Toksook Bay, home to about 700 people in western Alaska, Pitka recalled when the tribal council first considered inviting MDS to help repair...
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Reynold Friesen to be its next Executive Director. Friesen, who is currently the Director of Alumni, Church, and Donor Relations at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU...
For over 40 years, the Poplar Park Hall was the centre of community life in rural Libau, Manitoba. When it no longer met the community’s needs, it was sold to Jeff and Sylvia Starr. For the Starrs, who have been living in Winnipeg, it was a great...
After their first assignment in 1991, Jerry and Doreen Klassen accumulated more than 1,500 days of voluntary service with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) over 14 years — simply by responding to a call when asked. In 1990, Jerry had resigned from a...
Heather Muraca raised her two children on a hillside property across the road from Adams River in British Columbia. Rooted there for 23 years, she never imagined they would lose their home to a wildfire. A lightning strike ignited the Lower East...
“Growing up in Lytton, you’re used to fires,” said Nikiah Coghlan, who at age 33 has spent most of his life in the southern British Columbia village. For the past 15 years or so, residents have anticipated the “seasonal” smoke plumes that...
Florence Walde and Sheryl Giudici have cooked together for the past 20 years. They met at church, through mutual friends, about 35 years ago and have found themselves running church kitchens, soup kitchens and MDS kitchens together over the past two...
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