Donations pour in for residents displaced by fire

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This article was published 22/05/2018 (2695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s generosity was on full display at St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Monday in the wake of a destructive fire that has left dozens of families homeless.

Hundreds of donations, from clothing, shoes, toys, shampoo, diapers and suitcases, were given to the Brandon Bear Clan over the May long weekend, after a fire destroyed three buildings in the city’s downtown and left the Massey Manor residential building badly damaged.

As of Monday, 174 people who were displaced from Massey had registered for help with the Red Cross.

The Brandon Bear Clan started collecting donations Sunday afternoon and within an hour, the group was at capacity, something Janis Irvine, a member of the Bear Clan’s women’s council, said was overwhelming.

“There’s a lot of things going on in Brandon that are negative, but we needed an opportunity,” she said. “We needed an opportunity to show what we’re about.”

The Bear Clan used the main room in the church’s basement to house the donations and later opened up a back room to accommodate the overflow.

On Sunday afternoon, some members hand-delivered donations to the families that are currently staying in hotels.

The next day, buses took the families to St. Matthew’s so they could find the items they needed most.

“This is this community,” said Father Don Bernhardt from St. Matthew’s. “This is what happens when we get the call out and I had no doubt we would get this response.”

Volunteers were on hand to carry bags of donations into the church and organize the clothing and shoes by size.

“I wanted to help as much as I could,” said Rebecca Taylor, who has a friend that lived in Massey.

Jhon Rincon came with his son Andreas and said he knew a pair of Mexican families who lived in the building.

Together, the father-son duo walked from one room to another, carrying bags and boxes of clothes with them for organizing.

“We want to help in any way,” Rincon said.

Volunteer Debora Carmichael watched the fire live on Facebook and pointed to the number of people who will have lost their homes and jobs because of what happened.

“There’s a lot of people that were affected by this,” she said.

Tia Houle picked up a doll for her one-year-old daughter, while her son migrated over to the toy table and grabbed a small truck to play with.

Houle and her children moved into Massey with her mother only two weeks ago before trying to find a more permanent home for her two children.

The family has been living at the Victoria Inn since the fires started on Saturday and Houle said she is looking for another place to stay, although it has been challenging.

“You don’t realize what you have until it’s all gone,” she said.

Even though the Bear Clan says it doesn’t need any more donations, the group is looking for certain items, including baby formula, diapers and distilled water.

More volunteers will be needed today and Wednesday between 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to help evacuees and continue sorting and boxing donations at St. Matthew’s.

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