Mission residents are showing their generosity and support for victims of the BC wildfires.
When Lesa Lacey, of Lacey Developments Ltd. in Deroche, put the word out that they were collection donations, items began to flood in almost immediately.
Lacey said the collection began after two of the company’s employees asked to borrow trucks to drive donations to wildfire affected areas.
Last Monday, Kyle MacDonald and Curtis Hewton both made the request, within an hour of each other, without knowing each other’s plans.
MacDonald planned to drive to Princeton and Hewton wanted to drive to Kamloops.
“We thought that if they were going to borrow the trucks, we should fill them up,” said Lacey.
The company supplied a Ford 350 and Ford 550 and needed to fill them with supplies in less than a week.
“On Tuesday, we posted to social media on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages and asked for people to share the post,” said Lacey.
“We were shocked by the amazing response from our community.”
By Friday, the post had been viewed over 12,000 times. Clients, friends, team members and suppliers were phoning and messaging the company with offers of support.
Brand new pillows, cases of Gatorade, three skids of water, hundreds of loaves of bread, toothbrushes, toothpaste and enough toilet paper and paper towel to build a tower to the ceiling came into the shop.
“It was so heartwarming to see the support in our small community for the families affected by the wildfires.”
Staff packed up the donations on Saturday and split it up to go to Princeton and Kamloops.
“We more than filled the two trucks with over 600 square feet of donations, requiring plywood walls to be built onsite to fit all the donations in,” explained Lacey.
On Saturday morning the trucks rolled out.
Lacey Developments has another truck going out this Saturday and they are still accepting donations.
Volunteers in the interior have asked for non-perishable food items, baby items like diapers and formula, pet food, and hygiene items.
Anyone who wants to donate can check out the Lacey Developments Facebook page, text Lacey at 604-803-2494 or email lesa@laceydevelopments.com.
Other efforts:
Mission’s Nancy Williams is also collecting food and other items to help people impacted by B.C.’s wildfires.
Williams is heading to Kamloops on Thursday and decided, if she was going anyway it would be a shame not to offer some assistance.
Williams is trying to collect enough donations to filler her truck, before she leaves. She has been at Mission’s Real Canadian Superstore, asking residents to donate.