Vanderhoof, A Town Of Doers

By Ben Meisner

I have always been amazed at the sense of community in Vanderhoof. This past week they were able to get over 350 people out in one day to help build about 3 kilometers of  dikes along the Nechako to prevent flooding in that town.

140,000 sand bags later, on Monday, men, women, and school kids were out there filling some more.

To add to that church groups and ordinary citizens alike, brought out the food that they needed. They just have that special glue that makes a town something special.

There may only be about 5,000 people living in Vanderhoof, but as you drove around the area it seemed as though a  whole army had descended on the town  with one common goal.  They were there to build a system of dikes.  Had the work not been done, there would have been some major flood damage to  many homes.

There was no thought  to who  might live in the homes at risk, that didn't matter.  What did matter was that  they work together as a community to save  the home of a member of the community.  They put together a plan that should be the envy of anyone who is developing a disaster plan

Joe Ukryn ,who heads the volunteers, said to me "We had the advantage of knowing when the flood would hit."   Well I have covered a lot of floods over my years Joe and I must say most of the towns and cities had as much, or more, advance notice than your community.

The simple fact is when the townspeople knew it was coming; they simply rolled up their sleeves and headed out to give a helping hand.

Vanderhoof is just that kind of town. 

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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