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Ladysmith Rotary sponsored Disaster Aid Canada shipping essentials to wildfire evacuees

A disaster relief charity founded over a decade ago by Ladysmith Rotarians is playing a vital role in helping the over 35,000 people who remained displaced as wildfires continue to ravish B.C.’s interior.
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A donor brings in supplies at the Disaster Aid Canada warehouse in Esquimalt. (Submitted Photo)

A disaster relief charity founded over a decade ago by Ladysmith Rotarians is playing a vital role in helping the over 35,000 people who remained displaced as wildfires continue to ravish B.C.’s interior.

Disaster Aid Canada, founded by local members in 2003, quickly mobilized and has already sent four container’s from its Esquimalt warehouse since the fires erupted over two weeks ago. A fifth box is packed ready likely to transported north Monday.

WestJet is flying supplies from the Island to Prince George for free where three local Rotary clubs are helping to distribute everything.

Each shipment is helping about 2,000 people at evacuation centres in both Prince George and Kamloops and contains over a dozen hygiene essentials as well as blankets, towel and sheets.

“It’s been quite seamless when you’re there to offer help and people need help,” said Ann McIntyre, executive director for Disaster Aid Canada, adding that the charity also pitched in last year as part of the Fort McMurray wildlife relief effort.

“Hygiene is something that people continuously need and it’s often overlooked.”

Local hotels are a major source for much of the soap and refurbished blankets donated to DAC to the benefit of its Soap for Hope program. Tents, which are often a much needed item in cases of disasters elsewhere, haven’t been required in the case of the wildfires.

However, McIntyre said towels and blankets are currently in high demand in places like Kamloops

“Maybe it doesn’t sound like much but it certainly helps someone who has nothing,” she said.

Rotary’s fundraising efforts up and down the island also help to support the charity’s response effort in the event of natural disasters here at home, or abroad.

“We’ve got a lot of support on the island from all the Rotary clubs,” said Frank Elsom, Ladysmith Rotarian and Chair of Disaster Aid Canada,

He said a DAC fundraiser is scheduled in Comox Valley and the Port Hardy club has sent along cash donations for the wildfires relief effort.

In April, the Rotary Club of Ladysmith, which is the official sponsoring club the charity, held its annual fundraiser for DAC and eradicating polio and raised over $8,000.

On Wednesday, a bus of Rotarians from south Cowichan up to Chemainus also spent time at the Esquimalt warehouse packing up supplies.

“It’s a lot of hard work but people need to be proud and have some comfort in knowing they’re doing some good in the world - that’s all part of being in Rotary,”Elsom said. “We see the local disaster happening every day on the news so we know who we’re helping.”

With 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide, they are the eyes and ears on the ground when DAC’s supplies are needed.

“If we need help or want to know what’s going on we have people we can phone,” Elsom said. “Similarly, when we’re shipping things to places we like to know that they’re going to the people that need them.”

In the case of the wildfires, cash donations are the preferred method for supporting DAC as they can purchase large quantities in bulk.

McIntyre said the relief effort is ongoing and she doesn’t see any end in sight.

“This is not a one time, make a donation and think this is done. This is a continual thing and will go on for months to come and hygiene (supplies) is something that you continuously need,” she said.





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