The fourth home construction by MDS volunteers in the Shuswap over the summer. (Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

post-wildfire construction

MDS wraps up summer of rebuilding in Shuswap region with additional home dedication

Sep 5, 2024 | 2:26 PM

SCOTCH CREEK, B.C. — The Mennonite Disaster Service has become well-known for its volunteer led rebuild work in areas hit by natural disasters. MDS spent this summer in the Shuswap region, repairing, and rebuilding homes damaged or destroyed by the Bush Creek East Wildfire last year.

This week, work wrapped up with a home dedication event in Scotch Creek for resident Ted Edbom. With keys in hand, Edbom can now move into his new house in the North Shuswap after his original home burned down.

“I remember looking at my place when it burnt, and I thought ‘Wow, I must have done something really wrong for this to happen’. But then it turned right around and it came back at me, it’s incredible,” Edbom told CFJC at the MDS home dedication event on Sept. 4.

Rotating teams of volunteers with the Mennonite Disaster Service arrived in the Shuswap in the late spring. Construction took three to fourth months for the rebuilds, and in the case of Ted Edbom’s home, work was completed in about 10 weeks.

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“Ted has been incredible. He’s been here every day that we’ve had volunteers here. He’s worked shoulder to shoulder with them every day,” explains MDS Shuswap Project Director Roman Heuft.

Sections of the Shuswap are still charred by wildfire activity of last year, but over the course of this summer, the Mennonite Disaster Service teams were able to complete major repairs of four properties, and completely rebuild four homes.

Heuft lives in Blind Bay and says their crews were largely made up of volunteers from across Western Canada, but locals in the Shuswap didn’t shy away from lending a hand, or donating materials and other services.

“We have had more daily volunteers than we’ve ever had on a project. We have had more participation by sub-trades and suppliers than on any other project ever,” he adds that the best part of the work is seeing the final outcome, and the emotional impact it has on homeowners, “So it’s just been a wonderful experience for me, a local guy, to see my community reach out, it’s just amazing.”

MDS volunteers at the home dedication event for Ted Edbom, Sept. 4, 2024. (Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today)

MDS initially planned to rebuild three homes, and Ted Edbom’s house wasn’t on the list. But a healthy supply of volunteers, donations, and materials, combined with sheer willpower, made a fourth house possible.

“They’d (volunteers) come in the morning, sometimes they’d stay right until 5 then they had to hurry back or else they’d miss supper,” laughs Edbom, “But they’re just incredible people.”

As for what’s next for MDS, the faith-based group says they’ll go wherever their volunteers are needed.

“We’ll get a call, (Project Director Peter Thiessen) and I will get a call in probably February sometime, ‘We have this project, what do you think?’, and then we respond,” adds Heuft, “It’s what we do.”