Mennonite Weekly Review

For Paul Unruh, the No. 1 success in Mennonite Disaster Service summer work in Alaska was finishing.

MDS participants pose for a photo with Mary Rose David, a leader in her community, at the dedication of her house in Eagle, Alaska. From left are Kevin King, MDS executive director; Mary Rose David; David Myers, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; and Harold Miller, MDS project director. — Photo provided by MDS

“We got it done,” said Unruh, of Newton, Kan., a longtime MDS volunteer and board member.

Five Mennonites were among those who met in Anchorage to evaluate the collaborative response of volunteer and government organizations to the ice jams and flooding in villages along the Yukon River in mid- May.

The five were Unruh; David Myers, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under the Department of Homeland Security; Kevin King, MDS executive director; and Bill and Esther McCoy, MDS Region IV directors.

Myers visited Eagle, Alaska, Sept. 11, and marked the end of President Obama’s “United We Serve” summer campaign.

Getting it done — building more than a dozen new homes and repairing twice that many in the few months of 24-hour daylight and summer weather — took an unusual amount of collaboration between faith-based and neighborhood volunteer organizations and state and federal government agencies, Myers said.

Winter snows begin to fall in Alaska’s interior by mid-September, so it was crucial to complete the rebuilding and repairs quickly. MDS and other disaster service volunteers met the challenge.

The worst flooding of the Yukon River in the residents’ lifetime sent not only river water but also huge chunks of ice crashing into homes and personal property in villages along the Yukon River and its tributaries.

Floodwaters moved one house in Stevens Village 25 feet from its foundation. MDS volunteers resettled that home at its new location. Myers reported that ice chunks “as large as houses” acted like bulldozers, leveling or moving everything in their paths.

Despite being promised none of the comforts of home while they worked 10- to 12-hour days, six days a week, enough MDS volunteers came forward within two or three days of the call to fill all the spots needed for the summer projects. Half of the volunteers were new to MDS.