PARRY SOUND — Parry Sound answered the call.

More than 200 volunteers gathered outside Parry Sound Sobeys on the morning of July 28, ready to pack coolers and boxes to send north to Parry Sound 33.

When the store asked for help via its Facebook page, requesting that volunteers come out the following morning, Parry Sound Sobeys franchisee Matt Derouin said he wasn’t expecting so many people.

“No, that’s for sure! Friday night (I) was thinking, 'I have this grocery order I have to pack tomorrow morning and it has to be at the helipad by noon — we needed help,'” Derouin said Sunday morning. “I thought that we might have more than enough by Friday night, when I saw how many shares (the post) had on Facebook.”

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The rain Saturday morning hampered packing production, as the group was forced to start later, but it took volunteers just 2½ hours to pack up everything.

"That's the first, big, initial order, and now we'll be doing top-up orders to fill those 48-hour kits, as they require them," he said. “We never could have done it without that help. It had nothing to do with any one particular individual; it was just the whole community coming together. It was nice — really nice.”

All of the supplies packed by community members were delivered to the Britt command centre where they were flown out to crews.

Parry Sound 33 started on July 18 and has grown to 7,651 hectares; it is still listed as not under control.