Community rallies to help couple recover from flood
Bowness residents, Heather Moran and Jonathan Smith, survived the worst ravages of the flood. They lost many of their treasures, had the first two levels of their four- level-split home destroyed, like many others were evacuated for over a week, and then returned to their home a mere nine days ago to await contractors and many simple luxuries like hot water and electricity.
But despite everything, this positive 30-something couple says the experience was the best thing that ever happened to them and that they wouldn’t change a thing.
“It has been an amazing experience. When something like this happens and things go sideways, you really find out how good you’ve got it and how great the people around you are,” says Jonathan. Heather agrees. “We really realized the incredible friendships that we have. It has been so heartwarming.”
In particular, the couple extends thanks to members at the Glenmore Cricket Club, where Jonathan plays the game and is captain of one of the teams. The club of 55 members, all of whom hail from 13 other countries, except for Jonathan and two others, rallied to strip the Smith’s Bowness home to the studs and haul away garbage in the aftermath of the flooding.
“We put out a call on the Sunday after the flood and 25 people showed up,” recalls Jonathan, adding that the group came back for another four days in a row, working 12 to 14 hours a day.
In addition, the team raised $1,500 to help the Smiths with some of the costs. The cheque was presented during the club’s fundraising match for the Red Cross on Wednesday night.
“It was a huge surprise and quite overwhelming,” says Heather, who adds that the costs of the home renovations are still unknown. “We are still waiting to get a contractor in — it’s almost impossible. That’s why we had to go a week without hot water. We couldn’t get anyone in to put in a new tank,” adds Jonathan, noting that although the couple is taking the damage in stride, the fact that they had just completed the first stage of renovations on the basement and on the backyard landscaping is a bit sad.
“I think that they had put in the last piece of drywall in the basement at 5:30 on Thursday,” says Heather. Residents of Bowness were evacuated that evening.
The couple is also grateful to their company, Golder Associates, for providing them with a corporate apartment to stay in during the evacuation.
“Plus so many friends from work came to help, too. It was incredible,” says Heather, noting that one of their friends brought Vince Davoli, the senior vice-president from Ellis Don Construction with him during the cleanup. “He wanted to lend a hand and he ended up helping us to clean our basement and then loaned us a generator and heating system to dry it out. It was amazing because I thought for a while we would never get it dry,” says Heather. She also explains that he generously donated 50 people and six trucks to the neighbourhood cleanup and when all was told they removed over 100,000 pounds of trash from the street.
Jonathan’s avid interest in cricket grew while he was participating in a work sojourn in Australia seven years ago. “My company sent me over there for almost a year and I fell in love with the sport. It was great to play at the beach or at barbecues,” says Jonathan, adding that he met Heather in Australia.
“When we came back to Calgary, cricket was a way to help attach Heather to her roots.”
The couple initially got their feet wet six years ago by watching the team at Riley Park, where Calgarians have been playing the sport for close to 100 years. “They were so welcoming. They invited us in and made us lunch. Right from the get-go they were amazing,” recalls Heather.
The Glenmore Cricket Club’s president, Alex Storey, who’s from London, agrees that the club is pretty fantastic. “It’s great to see how our members responded. This has just brought everyone so much closer together.”