It was a year ago today that the wildfire began to ravage the Fort McMurray area.
Eventually to become known as The Beast, it would destroy much of the community, and cause the evacuation of more than 80-thousand people, and the destruction of about 2,400 homes and businesses, leaving more than $3.6-billion in insurable damage.
Shelly Sorenson & Orren Ford in the Willy’s truck on Friday May 6, 2016. (Photo/Peace River Broadcasting)
But across the province, volunteers sent in lots of goods and funding to help the people affected by the devastation.
In Peace River, Willy’s Trucking Services partnered up with Tarpon Energy in order to fill a truck up with donated items.
“I still can remember the back of that trailer, and how full it was,” Tarpon Energy’s Orren Ford recalled. “The pictures really don’t show it justice. That trailer was immaculately full, and that just shows the generosity of this area.”
Ford says when he and Willy’s Regional Manager Shelly Sorensen were in the back of that trailer, he remembers meeting some of the people from Fort McMurray.
“The emotions from those people said it all,” he said. “They didn’t know what was happening back at home at that time, they didn’t know if they had anything to go back home to. But just being able to help them out was quite the experience. It was quite the weekend, and I’m just glad we were able to do our part.”
For her part, Sorensen recalled attending and graduating high school in Fort McMurray, and still having some friends living up there.
“I just knew we had to do something,” said Sorensen. “And I was truly overwhelmed. It was one of the most heartwarming days of my life to see people coming with shopping carts, coming with diapers and water, and a number of things just to support the victims. It was just unbelieveable.”
The event was only supposed to be a one-day thing, but it ended up being three days of collections.
“There was a trailer full of approximately $50,000 worth of goods,” said Sorensen. “First, we had to take the trailer to the Red Cross Distribution Centre in Edmonton. We had some staff from Willy’s to escort it down there, and then it eventually made it up to Fort McMurray.”
She said it was just a heartwarming event to see all those people come together to help out all the people of Fort McMurray.
– Posted by BET
