By Kellah Lavoie

Donations to make a difference

May 13, 2011 | 6:37 AM

It was a big donation from complete strangers.

Roderick Powder and Ernestine Lidguerre made a trip from Saskatoon to Prince Albert on Thursday with their truck full of donations. It was all for the people who lost their home in the Timber Bay fire last week.

Even though Powder and Lidguerre have never met the three Timber Bay residents – two men and a five-year-old boy— Lidguerre heard about the fire and that the Prince Albert Indian and Metis Friendship Centre was taking donations through the media.

“I thought I have quite a few stuff, so I thought I might as well go ahead,” she said, explaining she called the centre right away to make arrangements to drop off the load.

“It seems like they’re pretty happy with the donations because it’s a quite a bit of stuff. It’s a little bit of everything for the house.”

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While the pair was not sure of everything that was in their boxes and bags, they said there were some dishes, clothing, bedding and even a coffee pot.

“There’s lots more there,” Powder joked, about how much stuff they still have back at home.

Lately, it has not been unusual for them to be giving away what they don’t need.

Lidguerre made her first big donation about four years ago, when a couple of homes burnt down near Saskatoon.

She collected things for the families from her friends, she said and it ended taking five or six trips to pick up everything that people gave.

While the pair has never known the people they have collected for and have never lost a home themselves, Lidguerre said they know what it’s like from seeing it in Northern Saskatchewan. They only moved to Saskatoon nine years ago.

“I know what stage a person is in when they lose everything in a house fire, because my … hometown is Fond-du-Lac, a lot houses had burned. One year mom’s house had smoke damage and we had to get rid of a lot of stuff,” she said.

The couple said it feels good to give, and now they have a little more space in their home to start collecting again.

klavoie@panow.com