Stepping up to help as fires rage

When Lendyll Soriano got a job working with First Nations during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was warmly embraced by the Indigenous community. Now, he wants to give back.

The Filipino immigrant, who co-owns Dream Barbers with two partners, has launched a free haircut initiative for Manitoba wildfire evacuees.

“We already had a couple of people come in (Tuesday),” said Soriano, who owns the Portage Avenue shop with Mark Antonio and Albert Amante.

“If grooming is a good way to help out this situation, why not make it a free service for them?”–Lendyll Soriano

In his day job as communications liaison with the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, Soriano said his Indigenous colleagues have shown him the value of family and helping each other during times of need.

“I wasn’t even First Nations, so that’s what I appreciated about them,” he said. “I was learning, and as an immigrant here in Canada, we really didn’t have any history of what First Nations history is. So when I started working there five years ago, I really began to understand what First Nations people went through.”

Soriano said he has seen firsthand the impact displacement has had on the Indigenous community.

“Some are new to the city, so for us, it’s a good way, if grooming is a good way to help out this situation, why not make it a free service for them?” he said.

‘Be accepted, be together’: yoga studio

Soriano isn’t the only Winnipeg entrepreneur stepping up. Christina Lin became motivated to help after she received a call from a panicked friend in Flin Flon.

“She’s an evacuee, and she called me by mistake,” said Lin, a teacher at Modo Yoga, whose two locations in the city — on Donald and Waverley streets — are offering evacuees free admission to any of their classes. “It inspired me to want to offer more. I brought this to my manager and our owners, and they were like, ‘Absolutely. Without question.’”

Lin said the studios have removed some barriers, knowing some won’t have a yoga mat or a towel to bring with them.

“We know that it’s not the first thing on their mind to move their bodies,” she said. “They’re surviving. We just want to let them know, if and when they process it all, if they need somewhere to go and breathe, be in an accessible space, with change rooms for all genders, that it’s there for them. You can come be with community, be accepted, be together.”

Some are even taking measures into their own hands.

Water pumps delivered to firefighters

After Cranberry Portage was evacuated, resident Barb Bragg spent the past few weeks purchasing more than a dozen water pumps from Winnipeg and delivering them to The Pas, and later, with permission from those fighting the flames, directly to the firefighters in her home community.

The 70-year-old retiree made three eight-plus hour trips to hand off the water pumps, even sleeping in her truck at times.

“To (just) be evacuated seems wimpy, in a way, at least for me,” she joked over the phone from Gimli, where she’s currently staying, Tuesday afternoon.

“I want to help, I want to do what I can.”

A mandatory evacuation order remains for Cranberry Portage, as a 4,921-hectare wildfire south of the community remains out of control.

Bragg said she isn’t alone in her efforts — others have passed along hose and sprinkler systems. She dropped off the last shipment Monday.

Her focus now is on putting together a newsletter to keep her neighbours informed on the status of the wildfires, some of whom, she said, are struggling to cope with the loss of their homes.

“These friends of mine, who’ve been friends for 50 years, are saying, ‘We just found out our house is gone, ‘We just found out our house is gone,’ ‘Mine went, too,’ ‘Has anybody heard about this one?’ … it’s the heartbreak of that.”

Thrift store accepting donations

Winnipeg’s Jewish and Mennonite communities are also doing their parts to make life easier for evacuees.

B’nai Brith Canada’s Winnipeg chapter is accepting donations of toiletries, diapers, infant formula and other essentials at its Kavod Thrift Store.

“The response has been unbelievable,” said Aviva Tabac, community engagement manager for B’nai Brith Canada. “It’s overwhelming. It’s a real feel-good moment.”

The donations have included 1,500 toothbrushes given from a local orthodontist.

“Now we want to see if we can get the same number of tubes of toothpaste donated,” Tabac said.

Items given to Kavod are checked and sorted before being delivered to groups that are distributing them to evacuees.

The executive director of Mennonite Disaster Service said there was an “overwhelming, fabulous” response to a call for volunteers to help at the Leila Avenue sports centre, where evacuees are registered.

The organization has provided between 20-25 volunteers per day at the centre in three shifts, including from midnight to 7 a.m.

“Clearly, people were anxious to help,” said Ross Penner.

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Volunteers provide evacuees with essential items and help set up cots for overnight stays.

The stream of evacuees at the site has slowed in recent days, Penner said. “But that can always change if a number of buses suddenly show up.”

For more information about donating to Kavod, call 204-487-9623. To volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service, call 204-261-1274.

— with files from Malak Abas and John Longhurst

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.