Warehouse Dedication Service
MEMO Cuba's core activity is collecting, packing and shipping redundant Canadian hospital equipment and supplies to needy health care facilities in Cuba. In order to do this year round, spacious, heated and clean warehousing facilities are needed.
In 2004-2005, spacious but unheated facilities were donated. When these were no longer available, the small but heated shipping and receiving area of one of the old Thunder Bay hospitals was used. In 2007, when the hospital was torn down, a local vacant school was used which was heated but had no proper loading dock. In 2008 after the school was sold, MEMO obtained the use of two highway trailers for storage. These were both cold and crowded.
Both Armstrong the Mover and Evangel Church let MEMO store trailers on their property. By this time, MEMO felt like the Children of Israel wandering through the wilderness.
And then finally, in the summer of 2009, Grace Evangelical Free Church made available the use of some property across the street from their "new" church - rent free!
A dedication service was held in August 2009 with over 25 Thunder Bay volunteers celebrating together. This 100' x 150' property had been obtained in a deal involving exchanging Grace's old, smaller church. This former Pentecostal church is a 20' x 60' heated building with the main floor at dock height with double wide front doors suitable for loading transport trucks. With this 1200 sq. ft heated space along with the two transport trailers parked in the backyard, MEMO now has adequate warehouse space. The MEMO team is thankful to God and to Grace Church for this facility which has already proved to be a huge blessing in organizing the shipping activities from Thunder Bay to Cuba!