Maple Ridge woman coordinates efforts to bring essentials to flood-ravaged Abbotsford and Hope

Jaime Knowles felt helpless when she first saw the footage of the devastation caused by the flooding. This soon turned into action, and she joined hands with a Mission-based woman to collect supplies for those affected by the flooding.

Knowles, a Maple Ridge woman from the Silver Valley neighbourghood, took to social media to see if anyone was organizing any collection drives for those affected by the flooding, after feeling utterly helpless.

“My heart was just breaking. It could’ve been my family, my neighbours and I just started so to see what I could do. I was able to connect with this woman in Mission, Tammera Morine, who had the restlestness and we both decided to put a call out for collection for the next 24 hours,” said Knowles.

Anne then proceeded to drive by, collecting, as well as establishing her garage as a drop-off point all day Wednesday.

“We weren’t sure how the supplies would be reaching Hope but we were sure it would work out. Shelley Arding, with the Realtors group that was organizing helicopter drop-offs of essentials, connected with us, and we dropped all the collected supplies to the Pitt Meadows Airport,” she said.

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Knowles and Morine, together collected winter jackets, clothing, non-perishables, toiletries in over three SUVs. While some of these went to Hope, some others were set aside for Abbotsford.

Morine had another friend from Maple Ridge, Jessica Belding, bring out two cars full of donations on Wednesday and Thursday evening. Belding drove around collecting from several Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows residence, all of which went to Abbotsford.

“It was just unreal having so many people involved and driving around picking donations up. My husband did a full truck load of just clothing donations out to Abbotsford and helped out so much with driving all the food donations out to there final destination,” said Morine.

While the supply run has ended, Knowles is hoping to continue staying involved in the efforts to help out residents of Abbotsford and Hope.

“There were just so many who wanted to help; so many generous people in Maple Ridge and beyond, it is touching,” said Knowles.

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