Volunteering with MDS
“It was so rewarding to see the people whose homes we restored, move back in. Some had thought they’d never be able to afford to fix their house or return to living in it.”
Grace and Gerald Loeppky are talking about their first experience volunteering for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). They went to New Orleans where residents were recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
Grace and Gerald began volunteering with MDS after they retired. Grace had been a district manager for Carlton Cards stores and Gerald had managed a federal agricultural research facility.
Gerald worked on home renovation during their 2009 term in New Orleans, but in 2010 he became a project manager organizing MDS volunteers and assigning them tasks. In 2009, Grace volunteered in the kitchen. She turned office manager the next year, handling accounting and banking for the unit.
In 2011, Grace and Gerald returned to New Orleans for another two months. They loved the city and couldn’t believe how resilient people were as they started over after the disastrous hurricane.
Some people’s homes had become infested by termites, others whose houses had been in their families for generations, didn’t have papers to prove ownership, so couldn’t qualify for federal money to rebuild. Many homes had been neglected even before the hurricane and needed plenty of work. Grace and Gerald felt like they were assisting people to not just rebuild their houses, but also to restore their pride in themselves and their homes.
In 2012 and 2013, Grace and Gerald volunteered in Minot, North Dakota where they helped repair houses and a church damaged by flooding. Just as in New Orleans, they became good friends with many of their fellow MDS volunteers from all over North America.
Grace and Gerald moved to Winnipeg from their long-time home in Portage La Prairie in 2013 and began attending Bethel. Grace started working a couple of days a week in the Winnipeg MDS office maintaining a database of volunteers and donors and doing other secretarial tasks.
This office work was a good fit for Grace, who felt their family needed her support in Winnipeg. Gerald continued going out on MDS assignments as a project manager, in 2014 to Staten Island, in 2015 to Crisfield Maryland and in 2016 and 2017 to West Virginia.
In 2018, the MDS office moved from its Markham Road home to the Canadian Mennonite University campus. Gerald and Grace were asked to head up the renovation project to prepare the new site for occupancy. They accepted the challenge and an article in the Canadian Mennonite shows them as part of the group proudly cutting the ribbon to open the newly renovated MDS administrative centre.
Grace and Gerald have continued to show a keen interest in MDS. Grace has served a five-year term on the Canadian MDS board.
Grace and Gerald say their faith has been strengthened by their MDS experiences which have provided a terrific opportunity for them to give back to others. They encourage people of all ages to consider volunteering with Mennonite Disaster Service.
This article was written by Bethel Storyteller MaryLou Driedger. She will be leading a workshop at the church on April 25 from 10-12 AM, for anyone interested in developing their story writing skills. Contact her at maryloudriedger@gmail.com if you would like to attend or would like more information.
