'Come together and rebuild': Saskatoon man plans fundraiser for church destroyed in suspicious fire
A Saskatoon man whose family helped to build the Waterhen Lake Church is planning to help rebuild the church.
RCMP have been investigating what they’ve called “a suspicious fire” that destroyed the church earlier this week. They said no one was injured in the blaze.
However, Chris Martell believes the fire was a massive loss for the community.
He said that his great, great grandfather helped to build the Our Lady of Smiles parish in the 1950s.
“I grew up in Waterhen Lake with my grandfather. I spent a lot of Christmases and summers up there growing up, and we spent a lot of time with the church growing up,” he told CTV News.
Martell said he was baptised in the parish and was hoping to have his daughter baptised there too.
“We're all just devastated that the church is gone.”
Martel has planned a fundraising walk in August that would see him travel approximately 380 kilometres from Waterhen Lake to St. Mary’s in Saskatoon.
“The end goal for us is we just want to rebuild the church again, and, and all come together as it was when the first guys built it,” he explained. “They all came together and built it all as a community.”
Martell said surrounding communities and even some from Lac St. Anne in Alberta joined in to build the parish.
“So we'd like to do that again and as a community come together and rebuild it.”
Martell has set up a GoFundMe page in hopes of raising $50,000.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Pharmacare bill passes in the House of Commons, heads to the Senate
The Liberals' pharmacare bill is headed to the Senate after passing third reading in the House of Commons.
National Bank of Canada seizes Ont. woman’s car by mistake
A university student woke up one morning to find her car had been towed away without warning. She finally got answers - just not the ones she expected.
More Canadians are moving to the U.S. Here's one of the main reasons, according to an immigration expert
Recent data from the U.S. census revealed that more than 126,000 people moved from Canada to the U.S. in 2022. An expert said that one of the main reasons for this move is the cost of living.
MPs 'wittingly' took part in foreign interference: national security committee
Some MPs began 'wittingly assisting' foreign state actors soon after their election, says a report released Monday, including sending confidential information to Indian officials.
Her gut was producing alcohol. Doctors didn't believe her
For two years doctors told her she was an alcoholic. Then they realized her gut was making alcohol from carbohydrates, a rare condition called auto-brewery syndrome.
Bus carrying Quebec tourists crashes in Cuba, leaving 1 dead and 26 injured
One person is dead and 26 were injured after a bus carrying Quebec tourists was involved in a collision in Cuba on Sunday.
Here's how far B.C. drivers must keep from cyclists, pedestrians under new law
A new law protecting cyclists and pedestrians in British Columbia takes effect Monday, establishing minimum distances that drivers must keep from so-called vulnerable road users.
N.L. becomes latest province to eye stricter tobacco regulations
Newfoundland and Labrador has floated an eyebrow-raising trial balloon in a bid to further the public health fight against tobacco and nicotine.
Forest bathing: What it is and why some Alberta doctors recommend it
Many people are familiar with the benefits of being in nature, but forest therapy goes a step further than a simple walk in the woods.