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...
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....
Led by a bagpiper, representatives from the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Ontario Unit and the Catholic Knights of Columbus were piped into a dedication ceremony on July 16 for a new addition on the home of Marc and Carole Jobin in Barry’s Bay,...
For Cornelius Beveridge, a cattle producer in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, hay provided by the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada Hay West project arrived at just the right time. “It got us through the cold spell around Christmas,” he said of...
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