Manitoba community opens doors to nearly 100 travellers

Community members in Oakville, Man., came together to help a group of drivers who were stranded in a pair of highway crashes.

It only took about two hours for residents of Oakville, Man., to share warmth with stranded travellers during the cold winter weather on Friday.

Around 11:20 a.m. on Friday, two multi-vehicle crashes near Oakville happened on both the eastbound and westbound lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway. The crashes were caused by the winter conditions and led to a shutdown of the highway between Headingley and Portage la Prairie.

Karen Olafson, an Oakville resident and a member of the fundraising committee for the Oakville Community Centre, said she and her husband, Devon Olafson, received a phone call from a member of the community centre administration about an hour later.

“We got the call. They just wanted to go in and the daycare was operating but they didn’t have access to the main hall and kitchen,” Devon said. “They wanted someone to go in and just open things up, put coffee on, put a couple of tables and chairs out for people to wait (the storm) out.”

“Normally, traffic would flow through to Portage (la Prairie) and get stranded in Portage. We’ve never had it where (drivers) get stranded in Oakville,” Karen told CTV News on Sunday.

“I think the RCMP were worried about people who were stuck between Headingley and Oakville. They were escorting them into Oakville.”

When Karen arrived at the community centre with Devon, stranded travellers had already arrived and the centre’s daycare section director unlocked the centre’s door for them. Volunteers, including the Olafsons, set up four to five tables.

‘The hall was filled with people dropping stuff off’

Karen said around 6 p.m. on Friday, their work expanded.

“We had an RCMP member come and let (the stranded travellers) know that at that point, no decision had been made how long it would be,” she said.

She put out a call on social media requesting snacks, food, bedding and toiletries.

“My phone lit up, social media lit up. The hall was filled with people dropping stuff off.”

Within about two hours of her post, Karen had to update it, stating “we had more than we needed,” but the community’s outpouring of support did not stop there.

Her former workplace, Sunnyside Colony, brought “two truckfuls of bedding” and baking products, along with eight people to help at the centre for about an hour. Six families showed up at the centre and took families into their homes for the night, Karen said.

“That was just so overwhelming with how everybody came together and how my phone lit up with ‘how can I help?’

“It was, ‘Do you need me there? What can I bring? What do you need?’ It was truly amazing,” Karen recalled.

Throughout the afternoon and overnight, approximately 90 travellers stayed at the centre, with around seven volunteers staying with them overnight, she said.

“Everybody was in good spirits and so thankful,” Karen said. “Quite a few of them gave us some cash as a donation to the (community centre) or asked, ‘How do we send money?’ That was very kind of them.”

Karen said the town stepped up in a big way to make stranded travellers feel comfortable.

“It’s Oakville. It’s a small rural Manitoba town where people come together when they’re needed. It was simply amazing. A really good feeling to be part of this community.”