Cape Breton, NS – August 13-19, 2023

A new week and we welcome a new group, this time from Shantz Mennonite Church in Ontario.

We continued to work on shingling the roof of Pushpa’s home. It is a steep roof with many peaks and valleys, including dormers. This also included some siding work on the dormers. By the end of the week the roof was completed.

The siding on a number of houses had taken a beating during the hurricane and we had a crew doing siding work at Paula’s where they put on Tyvek and Styrofoam before starting with the siding. By the end of the week the house was completely sided. Another crew rebuilt a deck and steps for a client.

We were so thankful that the forecast was not accurate for the week as it looked like we were going to have rain all week and that would make some of these jobs very difficult to do. The two groups that were doing yard maintenance were able to work all week and accomplish great things at the Legion and the Church. This group was also doing odd jobs at the Youth Centre including some painting and Ron (our volunteer) built a storage cabinet for their food distribution program. When sent to the address of West Ave and 3^rd St to cut the grass/shrubbery for a community garden spot, where would you begin weed whacking? They were redirected before they got too far on the wrong property to a lot that was a much easier spot to work at.

Thomas spent the week installing windows into these very old homes where nothing is straight or evenly studded!

Friday was a very special day this week, not only for the jobs completed before it started to rain but because we were able to celebrate once again with a family with a home dedication for Ron & Aileen. MDS replaced the roof, replaced some flooring, and did some painting on the upper level. The celebration was an emotional time of hearing their story of coming through the storm and fear of losing their home because of it. They as a family expressed their sincere gratitude for the work that was done on and in their home by MDS.

A very special comment came from one of the volunteers who had worked together as a couple on yard maintenance was “as the crew leader I have the best crew member and I would like to ask permission to take her home!” The group had a hearty laugh, thank you Paul and Christine for the great job you did with the task assigned to you.

Submitted by Priscilla Epp for Roman, Ike, Denis, Abe, Norma, Katie, Brayden, Connie, Thomas, Hanna, Ricarado and Hannah.