The ‘parties of 5’ volunteer event took place in Merritt on Saturday, April 23. People had the opportunity to sign up at Rotary Park to clean a yard of a flood affected Merritonian.

Roughly 80 people volunteered to clean 20 houses while another 40 people volunteered to help organize the cleanup and the barbecue lunch which took place afterwards.

“A lot of these people have been struggling in fighting for their recovery on their own,” said Steven Armstrong, a representative from the Merritt Support Centre.

“When people from the town and other cities show up and help them, I think it means the world to them. They haven’t been forgotten and there’s people out there helping them.”

The volunteers were comprised of representatives from the City, Team Rubicon, Samaritan’s Purse and local residents who want to help their neighbours.

Joann Irvine lives in the Riverside Mobile Home Park along Houston Street. She is one of the recipients of the voluntary service provided.

“What’s going on is Merritt at work which means people pitch in and help one another all the time,” said Irvine.

Owning a home right next to the Coldwater River, Irvine’s property was damaged by the floods of November 2021.

“When we came up a few days after the flood, our home was in a middle of a lake,” said Irvine “We couldn’t really access it, the water was up to our car doors driving in but we just needed to see.”

After the water line had receded, Irvine found her yard ravaged by the flood but luckily, the inside of her house had not met the same fate.

“We’re very blessed compared to other people in that our house inside was not damaged,” Irvine explained.

“We found the heat was still on and our furnace and hot water tanks were fine.”

Now, as she and her husband try to recover from the damages, Irvine has identified an issue with getting work done in her yard.

“It’s not even so much that you’d have to pay people, it’s that it’s very hard to find people,” Irvine explained.

“There’s more important things that contractors are doing right now, trying to get people back into their homes so it’s hard to find workers right now.”

Irvine feels extremely grateful for the individuals who took time out of their day and help clean out her yard.

“When they showed up, I cried,” said Irvine

“It’s a little devastating for people, you don’t know where to start because the job is so big. There’s so much need and when these people showed up, they came with tremendously positive attitudes.”

Keri Cooke, one of the volunteers who worked on Irvine’s yard. She shared her thoughts on neighbours helping neighbours.

“It feels good to help some folks who haven’t been able to handle this yet,” said Cooke.

“I think it’s easy for us to forget that theres substantial disaster and chaos in our neighborhood because we may not see it everyday.”

The volunteer event is just the latest effort to help residents in the city get back on their feet. On Friday, April 22, it was also announced that the waived landfill fees and free curbside pickup of debris have been extended to May.

“We realize there’s still suffering in town with people’s recovery,” said Armstrong.

“So it’s just important, I think, to engage people and let them see what’s happening out there and let them participate in the city’s recovery.”