E-KNOW Editorial

There is nothing quite like a disaster to make one realize how close our communities really are.

The recent Baker Street fire in downtown Cranbrook and ongoing flooding in Kimberley are two such examples, with numerous instances of ‘community-minded’ people dropping the course of their normal lives to pitch in and help out their friends and neighbours.

And in many cases, to help out perfect strangers. Interviewing Morrison Subdivision residents yesterday, e-KNOW was pleased to learn that people were being aided by others who didn’t know them the day before. They just want to help.

It’s not that people in big cities aren’t prone to dig down and help out their fellow community members, as residents in our East Kootenay towns do on a regular basis. It’s just that it stands out so much more because of the ratio of people one knows or recognizes is so much greater in our smaller towns.

It’s great to see Kimberley resident and city councillor Bev Middlebrook receiving so much love on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=379398598770073&set=a.379397452103521.83310.211958548847413&type=1&theater&notif_t=photo_comment ) as people are learning about her efforts, through the Lees Sparks Youth Centre, in feeding, hydrating and providing some respite for city workers and volunteers helping sandbag during the city’s latest crisis.

Scores of Selkirk Secondary School kids have been doing their turns filling and moving sandbags and many residents are simply taking a few hours from their busy days to pitch in and help out.

In Cranbrook, St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino is reaching out to the couple who lost their home and business in the Baker Street fire by donating 100% of the proceeds raised in tonight’s concert by Juno Award winner Cara Luft and Cranbrook’s own Heather Gemmel.

The outpouring of sympathy and support in both disasters is emblematic of the spirit and the hearts of the people in the East Kootenay.

It is one of the great pillars of our social norms that keep the 65,000 or so people who call this region home here and serves as a draw to those who wish to make this piece of paradise their home.

To the Cranbrook firefighters who did their professional best to keep a major fire from spreading, to the RCMP officer who saved the lives of the couple living in the downtown building and to St. Eugene Resort – hearty kudos and well done.

And to the Kimberley firefighters and search and rescue members, to the RCMP and city workers, Bev Middlebrook and the folks at Sparks Youth Centre, to the Selkirk school kids and their teachers, and to all the citizens of Kimberley and beyond who have put their backs and muscles into helping their fellow community members in a time of great stress – hearty kudos and well done.

It is truly heartwarming to realize how incredibly giving and caring our region’s residents are and how capable and professional our emergency services and city personnel are.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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