No strangers to the ravages of floods, the residents of the Estevan area have stepped up to help students in High River, Alta.
The community south of Calgary was hammered by a flood after the area was deluged by rain for days. The flood led to the evacuation of thousands of residents. It also forced the cancellation or postponement of events such as graduation at the local high school.
As well, many of the students lost their gradation dresses in the devastating floods.
That news struck a cord with an Estevan Comprehensive School teacher and prompted a drive that led to the donation of over 300 dresses.
Tanis Savill heard about the need for dresses via a Facebook post from her cousin who lives in the area. Savill began to spread word throughout the Estevan area and the response was overwhelming.
"I thought maybe I would get a dozen," Savill said in an interview Friday. "The initial idea was to send them back in my cousin's half-ton. They're not going to fit.
"I was overwhelmed. Just the phone calls, the emails, the Facebook messages that just keep coming are phenomenal. So many people are coming this morning with four and five and six at a time. We've got some coming from as far as Saskatoon and Regina. We've got some from Lampman, Oxbow ... all of the surrounding towns."
Savill said she asked each donor to include their email address with the dress in case the recipient wished to contact them. She said a number of people also included heartfelt messages of support.
"There are some messages there that just break your heart. Our communities went through this two years ago and a lot of girls said this was the only thing they salvaged from their house. It's a pretty great end to the school year. This is pretty amazing."
Savill said High River was hoping to reschedule the graduation to August and the dresses that aren't used would go to other students in need.
She added that Jenny Joans of Estevan also donated 15 new dresses. As well, Purolator agreed to ship the dresses and Trent's Tire has offered to pay for any shipping costs.
