Image Credit: United Way BC

By Adam Donnelly

UNITED WAY BC

United for BC Wildfire Recovery Fund aims to help those affected by 2021 wildfires

Aug 26, 2021 | 4:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — While we’re still in the midst of the 2021 wildfire season, it’s sure to go down as one of the worst BC has ever experienced. With hundreds of properties lost, and the total cost of those losses yet to be fully determined, the United Way of BC is helping those who have been displaced and have lost everything.

The United for BC Wildfire Recovery Fund was started in response to the 2017 wildfires. It’s meant to provide short- and long-term to people whose lives have been turned upside down as a result of the fire season.

“We’ve been meeting regularly with people who have lost their homes, people who’ve been evacuated, or on evacuation alert, and there’s so much need that surrounds that,” UWBC Regional Director Katie Neustaeter says. “Both physical need for those short term things, as people are out of their homes and trying to figure out what to do in the short term, but long term as well, which is really what we’re looking at now.”

The United Way has been working with organizations in communities like Merritt, where evacuees from Lytton have been staying. Connecting those grassroots groups with funding or necessary supplies is just one way the United for BC Wildfire Fund has been providing support during the fire season.

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“The Nicola Valley Food Bank is a perfect example of something we’ve funded through this fund because they called and said, ‘Here’s what it looks like at the food bank right now. People are urgently coming in, they’re lacking basics, necessities, they don’t know where they’ll sleep next week.’ We’re able to take that generosity from our community and put it into an organization like that who is talking daily to people, and meeting their needs.”

Be sure to tune in Friday (Aug. 27), as CFJC Today heads to Merritt to see first-hand the work that Nicola Valley Food Bank is doing to help meet the needs of wildfire evacuees who have been staying in that community.

To donate to the United for BC Wildfire Recovery Fund, you can visit https://uwbc.ca/wildfires.