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| Darryl Cox, Flood disaster relief lead for Brookfield Homes. Photo Credit: SAIT Polytechnic |
Darryl Cox has been to most of the world's major distaters over the last fifteen years: the Indoniesian Tsunami, New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina, and the earthquake in Haiti. He's gone as a team leader for Samaritan's Purse. Using his skills as a building contractor and carpenter, he's helped rebuild homes and communities, as well as supported imporant mitigation efforts that included sharing best practices on everything from cement mixes and building structure.
Then in June 2013, with Calgary overwhelmed with flood waters from the Bow and Elbow Rivers, his employer Brookfield Homes called him to lead a disaster relief team in his own city.
This was the first of a number of stories I have done on the Southern Alberta Flood Recovery.
When I first moved to Edmonton from my hometown of The Crowsnest Pass, I spent two years as a volunteer at downtown service agency, The Mustard Seed Edmonton. I then went to university, completed my BA as a political science major, then came back to the Seed as a summer student. Through the course of that decade, I would work in a half dozen positions. In my last position as Managing Director, I facilitated the difficult merger of our organization with a much larger one in Calgary. 
It was a decade that saw incredible growth in the scope and revenue generation of many non-profits in Canada. In this report (see screen shot to the right) "There is No Accounting for Landscape" published by The Institute for Non-Profit Studies at Mount Royal University College in Calgary, AB, author Cliff Spyker notes that government revenue sources grew from $54.3 B in 2000 to $124.6 B in 2008. A 129% growth rate- despite a significant recession.