A group of St. Paul businessmen stepped up last week to spearhead a campaign of support for the residents of Slave Lake, forced from their homes May 15 by forest fire.
Leading the charge was Luc Gascon of Northern Lights Welding. He said he couldn’t sit by and watch the news and do nothing, so he started making some calls last Monday. On his list were Danny Smyl of Smyl Motors, Darryl Poirier of Century 21 Poirier Real Estate, Eugene Labant of Xtreme Oilfield and Denis Levasseur of Lakeland Fire and Safety. By 10 a.m., trailers had seen set up at the Co-op Mall parking lot and donations of goods were being accepted.
“St. Paul stepped up to the plate and filled three 30-foot trailers,” Gascon said. The next day he led the convoy down the highway, first to a relief centre in Westlock and then on up to Athabasca.
But they weren’t done yet. Back in St. Paul on Wednesday, the group canvassed the town for even more support with a plan for literally a meal on wheels – filling yet more trailers with barbecues and enough food to cook lunch for one thousand plus people at the evacuation centre in Athabasca on Thursday. No small feat but St. Paul did not disappoint. With several cash donations from local businesses and individuals, the group was able to secure all they needed to head back up to Athabasca with 30 volunteers and enough food for the lunch along with specific items such as toiletries that volunteers at the relief centres had said were needed. The Millennium Ladies of the All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church and St. Paul Abilities Network provided salads for the lunch.
As it turned out, the St. Paul group ended up preparing and serving lunch to more than 1,600 people.
“Luc called me Monday morning and asked if I’d be willing to help,” Labant said. “Stuff like this doesn’t happen much in Alberta and so as soon as he asked I said ‘yes, let’s get ‘er done’.”
St. Paul Co-op took a lead role in assisting the group, according to Gascon. Providing space for the trailers, donating some product to the lunch effort and providing other items at cost.
“Bob (Scott) helped me so much,” he said. “Everyone I’ve talked to has said ‘what can I do to help’. This just blossomed.”
“Watching the news, there obviously was a need. Slave Lake is approximately the same size as St. Paul – it could have been here,” Scott said. “I’m proud of the staff that they were able to react so quickly and do this in addition to their regular jobs of running the store.”
On Wednesday, the Co-op grocery department also prepared hundreds of non-perishable food hampers, which were then offered to customers to purchase at cost and donate to the relief effort.
“This is one thing we were able to do. We recognized there was a need and we were able to bring the staff together to do this on short notice,” Co-op food manager Dwayne Odgaard said.
Poirier said the people of St. Paul came through very quickly to support the cause once word on the initiative spread through town.
“There’s a lot of good people involved in this. Business people really have come together to make this work,” Poirier said Wednesday. He travelled up to Athabasca Tuesday with the group and said people, although obviously very concerned about their homes in Slave Lake, were calm and the relief effort was well organized.
“I give Athabasca lot of credit for how they are handling this.”
Athabasca Advocate publisher Ross Hunter told the Journal the Athabasca community's response to the Slave Lake disaster has been inspirational.
“It's heartwarming to see our community band together so quickly and efficiently to help out our neighbours as best we can,” Hunter said. “The strength of the response, I think, is due in large part to the realization Athabascans have that it could just as easily have been us affected by wildfire, and relying on the support of our neighbours.”
Hunter said in a few weeks there will be opportunity to reflect upon and take pride in Athabasca’s role in the relief effort. But for now, “our focus is on continuing to assist our neighbours from Slave Lake in whatever way we can.”
Help from other communities, such as that provided by St. Paul, is going a long way towards easing the demand on the community of Athabasca, Hunter said.
Gascon and Poirier told the Journal Friday that Thursday’s experience in Athabasca is one they will never forget. People are on an emotional roller coaster and there’s so many stories people have to share of their escape from Slave Lake and of what they left behind.
“A big thank you to everyone in St. Paul who helped us do this, everyone who donated has made a difference,” Gascon said.
Poirier echoed his words, saying the volunteers in the relief centre were “very appreciative” of what St. Paul was doing and just thankful to have the help.
“St. Paul should be proud. There were tears in all of our eyes a few times throughout the day as we talked to different people.”
The Alberta government had pledged $50 million for the Slave Lake relief effort. Late last week, emergency relief programs designed to meet the urgent housing and financial needs of evacuees of fires in the Lesser Slave Lake region began rolling out in evacuee reception centres.
