Heather Wright/The Independent

Brooke Schrijver is overwhelmed by the generosity of her neighbours.

The Petrolia dairy farmer and her husband, Eric, set up a drive to help the victims of the Northern Ontario wildfires hoping to fill a 40-foot sea container. So many people wanted to help, the container was filled in two days and another is needed for the extra donations.

Lightening sparked the first major fire north of Thunder Bay July 6. By Sunday 1.7 million acres of trees had burned in the fast moving fires, sending smoke all the way to southern Ontario, degrading the air quality in Lambton County and across southern Ontario.

Schrijver was aware of the wildfires before the smoke could be seen drifting through her barns on Petrolia Line. Some of her co-worker at Ritchie Bros Auctioneers in Thunder Bay were already helping with the natural disaster.. “They’re working for Richie Brothers during the day and then they’re fighting fires at night,” Schrijver tells The Independent.

After seeing the devastation the fires were causing, she started thinking about how she could help. “I do know people up there and, obviously, you see the impact online; people are sharing pictures and stories.

“I was like, how can we help? How can we get a truck up there?

Schrijver heard from friends who were also thinking about the wildfires who said they’d be willing to donate if she could find a way to get it up north.

So, she approached her friend, Matt Campbell at Rowcliffe Trucking in Hensall with an idea; he offered to bring a 40-foot container on the back of a flatbed to Thunder Bay. Schrijver’s employer stepped up, offering their yard as a host once the donations made it to Thunder Bay. Richie Bros. also offered to pay for the shipping.

The word soon got out online about the opportunity to give. The Schrijver’s heard fro a number of groups willing to help including the Petrolia Community Refrigerator, St. Paul’s United Church, New Life Church’s Community Life Centre and Harvest Hands.

Schrijver and the organizations put out the word they were gathering non-perishable food, clothing, baby items, pet food, blankets and towels as well as games, books and toys for the families, including those in Indigenous communities, who had been displaced or lost everything in the flames.

Saturday, the stream of cars and trucks coming with donations was steady. Schrijver says some people made multiple trips.

She says many of the people donating have family in the north and others working as first responders there. “I actually just had a couple drop off seven bags of dog food. They have people up there that are evacuating dogs via airplanes, bringing them down here,” she said.

“We had two people that actually showed up here with their father’s clothing…Their father had passed away and they said ‘I just know my dad would want it to go to something like this.'”

Saturday afternoon, the container strapped to the flatbed trailer was getting full. By Sunday, it was overflowing.

The drive collected so many items, another container will be filled and make its way to Thunder Bay.

For now, those items are being stored in a shed at their neighbour’s farm. The Schrijvers and Tim and Stacey Williams are now trying to raise the $7,500 to ship the second container.

If you would like to help with the shipping costs, you can send an etransfer to williastace@gmail.com. You can also contact Schrijver at 226-973-2219

Schrijver hopes the first full container can head to Thunder Bay Tuesday and the second shortly after that.