Donations needed for Manitoba wildfire evacuees

Various organizations are taking donations for Manitobans who are fleeing from wildfires across the province.

“These people are fleeing with just what they have on their bodies, not even able to bring a stroller because of weight restrictions,” said Melissa Robinson, the Missing and Murdered Peoples’ Advocacy Specialist with AMC.

While there’s been a lot of support so far from the community, Robinson, who is also the founder of Morgan’s Warriors, says more donations are needed.

“They need everything, from toiletries to socks to shoes. Families were arriving with no shoes on their feet last night. So whatever you can think of, whatever we take advantage of having all the time, they’re in desperate need of it all,” Robinson explained.

“There’s families that haven’t eaten yet today … These families are waiting, waiting for food to come to them, because they have no money, no resources, and what are they to do?”

The AMC and Morgan’s Warriors began collecting donations Friday. Robinson said while one room was overflowing, most of the donations were immediately going out to families in need.

“They were going right back out last night, because people are requesting clothing, they don’t even have a change of clothing. Their babies, what if they have a blowout? There’s nothing available to them right now.”

Robinson says Morgan’s Warriors will be heading to the locations where evacuees are being told to go, and will be accepting and making sure everything is handed out.

“It’s all about community, we look after each other. And when one is in need, well then, you’ll have ten people come and support that person. And our organization, that is our logo — ‘helping is healing’. This is our medicine, doing what we’re doing right now, helping our relatives that are fleeing from their homes, and probably realistically going back to nothing. So you know what, let’s try our best to accommodate them as best we can.”

CityNews also spoke to the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), which is also one of the organizations taking donations.

“We are preparing to send items up to different First Nations that are requiring it. We had a load go up to (Opaskweyak Cree Nation) today as well as The Pas. So we’re continuously distributing directly to the places that have an immediate need,” explained Stephanie Meilleur, with the Manitoba Métis Federation.

“Having this area here, we brought it here because we recognized this Leila Avenue location is an immense need and now we’re seeing busses come in, being brought from other evacutation sites.”

Meilleur says they’re working with the City of Thompson and The Pas to bring more equipment to evacuation sites, and looking into bringing equipment to Peguis First Nation as well.

“We are looking at probably starting up our own site there, which case we are bringing showers up. So we are gonna have showers brought up there in the next few days. They’re gonna be coming from Winnipeg so that people that have been in evacuation sites for days without having showers will have the ability now.”

The MMF, like Morgan’s Warriors, says it is seeing a high demand for strollers.

“Strollers have been a hot ticket. At one point, we had 55 of them in our location at 406 McGregor adn within two hours we were down,” Meilleur explained.

For those looking to make donations, items will be accepted at the following locations: