Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) was recently awarded the 2015 “Member of the year” by the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters, a U.S.-based coalition of 120 non-profit disaster response organizations. The American Red Cross nominated MDS for the award based on its work in the post-Superstorm Sandy response. Sandy hit the east coast of the U.S. in late October 2012, the second costliest storm in U.S. history. MDS volunteers responding to Sandy came from both the U.S. and Canada with some 1,000 volunteers from Canada. In total there will have been more than 3,500 volunteers in all nine MDS projects in response to Sandy. In 2014 MDS had 3,636 volunteers working in the U.S. and Canada, 40 percent of them under the age of 30, in short and long-term assignments. —Mennonite Disaster Service
