Three Generations, One Purpose

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 in homes being built in the northern Saskatchewan community, along with other construction tasks.

All three work at Tradesman Manufacturing in Lethbridge, which was founded by Henry in 1986 to manufacture heating, ventilation, and air conditioning products.

For Henry, who is a member of the MDS Alberta Unit and a past MDS Canada board member, service like this with MDS is a way for the company to give back and enable employees to see how the products they make are used in homes.

That was the case for Eric, who works in information technology at Tradesman.

“Manufacturing is one thing, but installing them is another, especially when you’re doing a rebuild after a disaster,” said Eric, who has served with MDS before. “That’s a very unique experience.”

It’s also a chance to get out from behind a computer. “I really enjoy working with my hands,” he said, adding he enjoyed meeting homeowners and hearing their stories.

“You see the appreciation they have for what you’re doing for them. And that’s a huge part of why I do MDS, just to know the impact you’re making,” he said.

Serving with MDS isn’t a hardship, he added. “It’s just a week out of your life, and you’re just doing what you kind of know how to do. But to the homeowners, it’s very meaningful. And it is meaningful to me to see that.”

Parks (left) serves alongside his grandfather, Henry, installing ducting in a new home built by MDS volunteers in Denare Beach, Sask.

Parks is a millwright at Tradesman. For him, working with his grandfather and his uncle, Eric, was a good experience.

“It was a chance to learn where my work goes at the end of the day, where the work we do ends up,” he said, adding the experience was enhanced by doing it to help disaster survivors. “It was rewarding to give back.”

Looking back on the week of service, Henry said “we accomplished a lot . . . we did what we set out to do. For me, the big thing at this point in my life is giving back.”

It was also a teaching opportunity for Parks, he said. “Now he knows what is done with the products we make and how they’re used.”

The group of MDS volunteers the week Henry, Eric, and Parks served in Denare Beach, Sask.

The intergenerational aspect of the service was also rewarding, Henry said, adding they also appreciated working with a group of younger people from Ontario.

“It’s interesting to work with people of different generations and different perspectives,” he said. “You get to learn their points of view and they get to benefit from the older people’s experience . . . we were all here for one purpose, to get people back into their homes.”

John Longhurst, MDS Canada writer