While many Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers in Denare Beach, Saskatchewan are retired, or in the later stages of their careers, some young adults are also pounding nails, building concrete forms, and sawing wood to build houses. That...
This summer Craig Wollman, South Dakota MDS Unit Chair, received a call from the regional FEMA office in Colorado seeking assistance repairing damage on uninsured homes following a June 29th wind and hailstorm in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. In August...
I help Sam push his aluminum boat off of the gravel shore into the choppy gray water. The fishing has been especially good this year, and the salmon are going strong. Sam and the rest of the people in this coastal Alaskan village are grateful for the...
Floodwaters came within two blocks of Keith Morris’s home in Anderson, Indiana—and now he’s helping his neighbors muck out. Morris joined many other Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers who are offering an early response after a...
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) first-time Project Director Lowell Peachey, and his wife, first-time Office Manager Rita Peachey, shared why they liked leading the Summer Youth Program, a weeklong service experience for high school youth. The...
As the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, some Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) responders have looked back on that time as one in which the traditional model of response had to change. Tom Smucker, who was MDS Executive Director at...
Tom Smucker still regards responding to the Sept. 11 attacks 25 years ago one of the toughest responses he ever led for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). Then MDS executive director—and now retired but still volunteering for MDS—Smucker analyzes...
Three generations from the same extended family came together to serve with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) at Denare Beach in June. The three—grandfather Henry Warkentin, 74, his son Eric, 46, and grandson Parks, 18—installed furnace ductwork...
Three young volunteers—Brandon Martin, 18; Miles Rissler, 19; and Brenna Eastman, 19—are ready to embark on a yearlong service adventure with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). They will travel to various disaster recovery projects across the U.S...
Building a better world together.
Sign up to learn how you can help support MDS and receive the latest updates on our work.