Denare Beach – August 9-15, 2026

The progress on the homes continued this week as we welcomed 4 young adults from the Fraser Valley, BC. Project director Mark enjoyed having his two adult children: Jono and Ashley join him to help move the projects forward. MDS Scholarship students from CMU, Lia and Ethan, continued to learn valuable and practical construction skills.  

We were blessed to have local volunteers Dave and Sara-Lynne from Flin Flon join the team, recruited by our very competent and gracious head cook, Judy. Judy spent many years of her career here in Flin Flon and is enjoying reminiscing her former years here. Having local people on the team gave us an increased connection to the community along with recommendations and affirmations of connections in town. New and confirmed resources this week included window repair, and a neighbour in Denare Beach with a back hoe.   

On the weekend, Dave introduced us to his long time friend and canoeing buddy, Alistair – a local violin maker (luthier). Alistair gifted the team with a 2.5 hour information session at his cottage that included his unique style of violin making, a history of the area, with many ore prospecting and canoeing stories. He captivated us with his adventures, creativity and craftsmanship. Following our time with him, Alistair visited the Denare Complex and had a full tour of the facility, and the homes in the area that MDS is building.  

Kim’s home has one day’s work of fine touch ups remaining, and we are hoping to have an occupancy permit in place by the end of this week.  

One of the team building activities this week was at Ture’s home, where on Tuesday morning, 8 volunteers gathered to dig up a very heavy misplaced electrical cable to save Ture an expensive replacement. Doors were hung and door trim installed.  

At the Monias house, flooring was installed and the porch railing is 90% completed.  

Mudding, taping, and priming at Steven’s new home was completed, and the team got a good start on painting.  

On Friday, Steven (a volunteer fire fighter in Denare Beach) joined us for supper, and once again took those who were interested for a pontoon boat ride to the cliff jump. Although it was raining, Jonathan braved the cold to get in the water.  He also made good use of his drone camera, following the pontoon boat for a short distance. Earlier in the week, he was able to get some amazing shots of Denare Beach from the sky,  

Thank you to our leaders and long term & weekly volunteers for a very special week, hard work, conversation, laughter, and lasting friendships. 

Nancy