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371 Arthur St. S., ELMIRA, ON | 519-669-3232 Ontario's #1 Weekly Community Newspaper
JUNE 9, 2022
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Elmira, Ontario, Canada | observerxtra.com | Volume 27 | Issue 22
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St. Jacobs residents Anne Brubacher, Clint Rohr and Paul Kalbfleish in front of the former Jakobstettel Country Inn. The building has been empty for a few years, and community members will be working together to prepare it to provide temporary housing for Ukrainian refugees. Leah Gerber
Volunteers look to transform old Jakobstettel Inn for use by Ukrainian refugees Leah Gerber Observer Staff
THE OLD JAKOBSTETTEL COUNTRY INN in St. Jacobs will be put to good use in the coming months as community members work together to prepare it for welcoming and temporarily housing Ukrainian refugees. Clinton Rohr is a resident of St. Jacobs, a
volunteer with Woolwich Healthy Communities and the retired former executive director of the Woolwich Community Health Centre. He said that in March, he heard Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy begging the world for help. Around that time he was walking by the empty Jakobstettel house. “I ended up walking by
(the house). I was feeling incredible distress. And this house just jumped out at me and said ‘here I am, here’s a place some people, some Ukrainian refugees can stay.’” He subsequently presented his idea to Woolwich Healthy Communities. “The reception of the idea was very positive,” said Rohr. “The question
obviously became, ‘how? How will we do this? Who are the partners we might work with?’” The first step was to seek out the owner and see if the house, which had sat empty for at least three years, would be available as an option. The owner agreed. Once the ball was rolling, volunteers with Woolwich Healthy Communities realized
settlement work is not the group’s expertise. So they partnered with other groups such as the KW Multi-Cultural Centre, which has a division to help settle Ukrainian refugees. The KW Multi-Cultural Centre staff will provide food, among other supports. Now, the old inn needs to be made ready to house refugees, and Rohr is
hoping the community will rise to the challenge. “OK, the house, specifically inside, is going to need a major cleaning. We assessed it as being 80 per cent furnished at this point, which is really very excellent. Unfortunately, the house had been vandalized a bit,” said Rohr. He says the most press→ JAKOBSTETTEL 4
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