Cornwall man heads to Alberta with 200 prom dresses for evacuees

Cornwall man heads to Alberta with 200 prom dresses for evacuees

CORNWALL, Ontario – A Cornwall man who saw first-hand the devastation created by the Fort McMurray wildfire is doing “his part” to help the evacuees from that city – one kilometre at a time.

Jacques Landry is transporting more than 200 prom dresses to Edmonton right now (he left Cornwall early Tuesday morning) atop an open-air trailer he has attached to the back of his SUV.

He affectionately refers to his vehicle as the “McMurray Gown Express.”

And if the drive out to Edmonton wasn’t enough (it’s 7,000 km roundtrip), he had to travel all the way to New Brunswick to pick up the dresses, which had been donated by families in the Halifax, N.S. area, and then returned to Cornwall late Monday night.

By 4 a.m. Tuesday he was back on the road, headed west.

“It makes me feel great. The reason for me was to do my part. Everyone wants to do their part,” said Landry, who works for Aircon Technologies in Fort McMurray, installing fire suppression equipment on big machinery.

He commutes to work every two weeks, before returning to Cornwall for a respite. He was among those in a convoy escaping the flames earlier this month and saw for himself the carnage of the fire.

“When you see the pictures you’ll see everything destroyed around some homes, but then there is one home still standing,” Landry said. “There are people who lost everything. But even if it wasn’t lost, it would be smoke damaged.”

The prom dress collection is being spearheaded by Madison Grant, Landry’s boss’s daughter. The plan was to have the dresses flown out west.

But when the airlines refused to provide a free trip, Landry jumped into action. He hopes arrangements can be made to transfer the dresses a day outside of Edmonton to save him some time.

But if not, he is pressing on to the provincial capital.

“There will be more stories coming out of this all over,” said Landry. “It’s kind of refreshing to see.”

 

Share this article