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High school students earn credit in sandbagging 101

By: Kevin Rollason

Posted: 04/16/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Tobin Dyck hands a sandbag to Cathy Gerbasi behind a home on Scotia Street. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )

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James Stanley, a Grade 12 student at St. Norbert Collegiate, was ready to spend the day learning about mathematics and other subjects.

But on Wednesday, Stanley, along with dozens of fellow students from his school, spent the day learning about sandbagging.

"The whole school closed down to come here," he said, while standing at the end of a line of sandbaggers that turned a patch of lawn on Scotia Street into a sandbag dike a few rows high.

"These people are in a lot of trouble here. This is something we all can do to help."

Stanley said the students were bused in to help, and they expected to be slinging sandbags from about 9 a.m. to around 3 p.m.

"This is the first day the entire school closed, but last week and this week we Grade 12 students have been doing this," he said.

Until Tuesday, it was thought the homes along Scotia Street had been protected from the flood. But that changed when the province updated its flood forecast indicating a higher crest due to high water flows on both the Red and Assiniboine rivers at the same time.

The city told property owners in north and central Winnipeg to build or raise their sandbag dikes.

The city also put out a call for hundreds of volunteers to build them.

By mid-morning, several hundred volunteers, including high school students, people who took a day off work or are out of work, and others answered the call to build sandbag dikes behind homes on the river side of the 200 block of Scotia Street.

Education Minister Peter Bjornson called on high school students across the province to help in sandbagging efforts.

"In this particular flood period school divisions have to step up to the plate," Bjornson said.

"There are challenges throughout the province."

Bjornson said as long as students are healthy and have parental permission, there is no reason schools can't answer the call for volunteers.

He said getting involved teaches the importance of volunteerism and community building, adding when he was teaching in Gimli in 1997, his students help sandbag in the Netley Creek area.

Meanwhile, John Stott, human relations director at the Main Street Project, brought fellow workers -- and 12 of the organization's clients -- to help out.

"This gives them the ability to contribute to the community," Stott said.

"Many of our clients don't have an opportunity to contribute, but they can here.

"They're side by side with high school students and middle-aged people. I think it's great for their self-esteem."

Scotia Street homeowner Liz Masi was amazed how quickly a protective dike went up in her backyard.

"It's just wonderful. They came out to help -- it's all about community. And as awful as it is, it's a great way to release some spring fever," she said.

Masi said before she moved into the home eight years ago, she asked the former owners how high the river got in 1997.

"They said they sandbagged, but when the river crested it touched the bottom sandbag," she said.

"This is the highest it has been since we've been here -- we've never had to sandbag before."

McDonald's donated 400 quarter-pounders to give to volunteer sandbaggers, while the Salvation Army produced 200 sandwiches.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 16, 2009 A5

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