“It hasn’t been good,” said Dwayne Stewart as he described his long rebuilding journey after losing his home to the Barrington Lake wildfire of May 2023. As the fire, which burned over 23,000 hectares and was one of the largest in Nova Scotia...
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2025 was a good year for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada, although it was a bit different from years past. That was the message delivered in Calgary on Nov. 14-15 at the annual Leadership Consultation. “We didn’t have a large national...
When Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteer Jim Reimer tells a disaster survivor he knows how they feel, he’s telling the truth. Reimer, who lives in Steinbach, Man. with his wife, Marlene, lost his house to a fire in 2022. Most of their...
Their kids say: “You’re at the go-go stage of life.” Eleanor and Jim Dick really are on-the-go quite often. As volunteers involved with the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) RV Program since 2023, they join other 55+ people in a close-knit group...
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...
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...
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