A community, usually defined as simply a group of people living in a particular location, might also be termed as a place where everyone moves and works together in a common effort.
This certainly would define Weyburn, which has been in "recovery" mode for the past week, trying to deal with the after-effects of one of the biggest floods to hit this city in many years.
The definition of "community spirit" sums up nicely what has been happening in this city, along with other southeast communities: "A feeling of belonging to a community expressed in mutual support."
The numbers of volunteers who came out at all hours of the day or night, during rain or sunshine, was impressive, and helped the city and emergency workers get their job done in order to help the city recover from the flood.
In response to one call for volunteers, about 200 showed up, and they went and did sandbagging in the rain, and also distributed info packages to city residents.
The volunteers were in evidence also helping with places like the Family Place, which faces a crisis caused by sewage coming up into their basement, or in helping the city fill sandbags or in setting up dikes to keep the waters at bay.
One group of volunteers, from the Salvation Army, had a crisis of their own where the food bank got flooded and the food all needed to be moved upstairs in their building; at the same time, they were out in the rain and in the dark of night bringing coffee and food to the workers and volunteers out running pumps and vacuum trucks and setting up dikes, doing whatever jobs were needed to address the flood crisis.
This is the kind of spirit that built Weyburn, and helped the city earn its reputation and title for some years as "The Hospitality City".
Now Weyburn is the "Opportunity City", which is being shown by the robust economy in evidence by all the building and construction undergoing. The rain and the flooding is going to undercut that somewhat and cause problems, particularly for our area producers. Many of them were unable to get their seeding done, and some hadn't even started their seeding work yet.
The days to come will prove what a big heart Weyburn area people have as we move to help those in need as a result of the flooding.
