Before a Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) project can get started, there’s the driving—trucks, trailers, and vans need to get to the project site to help get things ready for volunteers to arrive. And driving means that MDS needs drivers. In this...
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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...
In 2017, schools of redhorse suckers streamed through a culvert into Jeanne Gauthier and Steve MacKenzie’s flooded yard. They were so plentiful that an organized response was needed to return the fish to the Ottawa River. That was the first time...
Sometimes, experiences with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) come full circle. This was the case for Deb and John,* who were introduced to MDS in 2008 when John was invited to volunteer on an MDS assignment in New Orleans, Louisiana. He “caught the...
Dodie Lepp was 12 years old when a series of tornadoes touched down near her family’s home in Goshen, Indiana. It was her first experience with a disaster. “It was Palm Sunday, and I’ll never forget it,” she recalled. “It was just...
An eight-year-old kneels, with battery-operated drill in hand, over a sheet of plywood. He knows what to do. It’s a familiar scene at Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Family Projects. It’s amazing what young people can accomplish with the...
As hurricanes go, Fiona wasn’t as bad as some when it hit Atlantic Canada—just lots of trees blown down into yards and shingles and siding blown off houses. Unless it was your tree, your yard or your roof and siding. Then it was a very big deal....
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