Vancouver 2025 Day Seven
Vancouver 2025 Day Seven
By: Charlotte
Good evening from Salt Spring Island! This morning we split up into 4 smaller teams to help with various things around the island.
Matt, Abby, and Olivia went to the south end for the day where they helped a lady named Lara. Lara grows food in her garden that she donates to the food bank, women’s shelters, and other vulnerable people in the community. They watered apple trees, moved compost, and helped with some other general yard maintenance and gardening. Lara was super appreciative and Olivia even got her number to use her hot tub that can seat 8 - we’ll see if we have the time to take her up on that offer!
The team of strong boys (Jacob, Tymon, Randy, and Eric) went to a property where they rolled big rounds of wood up a hill and split them. The 4 boys gave it their all and were able to do about 6 months of work for the couple they helped.
Wade went with Grant to help with home deliveries for the food bank and got into a minor showdown with a dog.
Adeleecia, Kathryn, and myself went to help Sharon, one of the church member’s (Rob) neighbour’s. While Kathryn was pulling broom (an invasive plant here on the island), me, Adeleecia, and Rob moved firewood up the driveway and then split it - I will be sore tomorrow lol. After some hard work, Sharon invited us for some tea and homemade organic raspberry crumble from her garden and to pet her dog and cat.
For lunch we came back to the church and had some sandwiches - it was a nice time to break and eat inside since it had just started to rain. After lunch we headed back out to do some more gardening and yard work.
A few of us ended up at the wrong houses, myself included, but people are very friendly here and were able to point us in the right direction. For the afternoon, I was paired up with Adeleecia to help an elderly woman named Pauline with weeding and pruning her garden. When we arrived, Pauline was surprised, since she thought we would be there tomorrow and had a hairdresser coming to do her and her husband’s hair. She did have some time before getting her hair done to point out a few tasks she wanted completed, but unfortunately we didn’t get to chat with her too much. After about 30 minutes of working Grant showed up at Pauline’s since Eric and Jacob needed the truck to do a dump run for the man they were helping. I drove the truck over to them and Grant brought me back to Pauline’s. Adeleecia and I continued working in the rain and completed our tasks a little early, but since we no longer had the truck, we had to walk back. Our walk was only about 30 minutes, but we were mostly in the trees and the rain had lightened up a bit. Plus, there were some stunning views on the trail we took that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise! We even made it back to the church before anyone else, which gave us a chance to take hot showers and start dinner for everyone.
After dinner, it was youth night. Everyone who has a current police check stayed with the youth to help run some activities. Me and Olivia (who don’t have police checks) went with Grant so he could show us our task at the food bank for tomorrow since he will be meeting his birth family on the mainland! On our drive to the food bank, I asked Grant about any local beaches the team could go to for a swim and he gave us a whole tour of the island and pointed out a few spots! Hoping I can convince someone to go for a dip with me since it has been quite cool!
The evening ended with our debrief with Grant, and a devotional from 2 Corinthians 9, which talks about giving generously and cheerfully. I have seen the generosity of the local church with providing us accommodations and vehicles while we are on Salt Spring and among team members caring for the community here and for each other. I pray that our team can continue to serve and bless the island and the Orangeville community when we return.
