By Lyonel Doherty
Oliver Chronicle
After seeing the community spirit in Willowbrook last week, it makes you envious that you don’t live there.
What a tight-knit community, and a beauty to behold, even in high water.
After a recent notification from local government, all it took was a few phone calls and Facebook posts to rally the neighbours to fill and deploy sandbags. Even local youth tore themselves away from their iPods and phones to help out.
If you’ve never carried a sandbag before, it’s heavy, and carrying hundreds over the course of several hours can leave you with many aches and pains. But like an old-fashioned work bee, residents and firefighters persevered, driven by an urgency and passion to help in the crisis.
Some people who don’t even live in Willowbrook showed up with food and encouragement. Their homes weren’t in danger of flooding but they still felt compelled to lend a hand.
That’s what makes Willowbrook special, and deserving of the “Spirit of Willowbrook” award.
Let’s hope Mother Nature sees this and gives the community a break. But she’s a very fickle woman who will pound you into submission and then hold you under water until you have nothing left.
But she doesn’t know Willowbrook very well, does she? No matter what calamity she subjects them to, residents will help each other up again, crutches and all, to fight another day.
While there are too many people to list, kudos go out to Area C alternate director Rick Knodel and director Terry Schafer for pushing the right buttons.
A new moniker for Knodel has been floating around the community of late . . . “All hail the king of Willowbrook.”
He might not be a king, but he sure is a great supporter and tour guide.
All joking aside, we hope the provincial government has learned from the past year and will do everything in its power to help residents avoid a catastrophe.
The first step was the removal of a section of Meyers Road to increase the water flow through the community. And the pump on Carr Crescent has done wonders to address the standing water issue.
It’s also nice to see the government commissioning a hydrologist report to look at flood mitigation.
It’s amazing what can be done with a little will, forethought and loosening of purse strings.
