A Saskatchewan First Nations leader is left with only the shirt on his back after a New Year’s Day fire destroyed the home he and his wife were preparing to move into.
Sol Sanderson’s family has now launched a fundraising campaign to help the elderly couple regroup and rebuild.
Sanderson is now 73 but is still active in Aboriginal politics. He sits on the FSIN Senate and was chief of the organization from 1979 until 1986. Sol and his wife, Elsie, were living in a rented home in Prince Albert.
They were in the process of moving to an acreage near St. Louis, Saskatchewan. Family, including his daughter, Dawn Robins, had already hauled most of their possessions to the new home when the fire hit.
Robins says while the home was insured, the contents were not.
“They’ve lost everything. Thirty, forty, fifty, seventy years of their life is all wrapped up into one fire and they have lost everything except the clothes on their back.”
She says despite the setback, her father is doing well.
“He can start again. It’s just that at 73 years old, and all that he has done for the community and Indigenous people of the world, I want his last years to count and to be comfortable.”
Sanderson is currently living with family in Prince Albert. It is expected to take months before the home can be rebuilt.
Robins’ son, Dane, has launched an online fundraising campaign to help his grandfather replace the things that were lost in the fire.
There is a Facebook link to the page, or you can find it on the website youcaring.com.
You can also donate by contacting Dawn at (306) 960-7825 or Andrea at (306) 987-0424.
The fundraising goal is $30,000. Donations have come in from as far away as Scotland.