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lessons learned & the future...
2025 and 2026...
I WAS THIRSTY
Why We Started
I Was Thirsty began with a simple observation: people living outdoors were not always able to access safe drinking water.
We believed there was a simple way our community could help - bring water directly to people where they were.
2025 - The Pilot
In 2025, we tested the idea on a small scale.
We started with a few volunteers, a personal vehicle and donated or purchased water. The pilot showed that there was a real need and that volunteers could safely deliver water directly to people in the community.
The 60 day pilot gave us the foundation to continue.
2026 - Proof of Concept
In 2026, we moved beyond the pilot and operated a 90 day mission on a much larger and more organized scale.
In two years, we delivered:
- 41,232 bottles of water, or
- 1,718 cases, or
- 51,540 pounds, or
- 20,616 litres of water.
- 250+ people served each day
- 12 encampment locations
- 5,233 kilometres travelled
- 27 volunteers
The cost of a bottle of water increased slightly to approximately 14¢.
More importantly, 2026 reaffirmed what we had seen during the 2025 pilot: the need is real, has grown, is ongoing and changing.
What We Did
We kept the mission simple.
We brought water directly to people where they were. We worked in pairs, planned routes, monitored conditions and adjusted our operations when circumstances changed.
Reconnaissance and mapping became an ongoing part of our daily operations.
Locations changed. People moved. Numbers changed. Access and safety conditions changed.
We recorded what we saw so that the next delivery could be better prepared.
We mapped the locations. We did not map the people.
We also developed volunteer leadership and shared responsibility so that the mission could increasingly operate as a team rather than depend on one person.
What 2026 Reaffirmed
Our basic principles did not change.
What changed was our understanding of how to apply them more effectively.
We reaffirmed that:
- the need must drive the mission;
- safety comes first;
- people should be treated with dignity and respect;
- conditions in the field can change quickly;
- the operation must be flexible;
- volunteers are the foundation of the mission;
- good records help us make better decisions; and
- simple, practical community action can accomplish a great deal.
The experience of 2026 allowed us to strengthen the way we worked without losing the simplicity of the original idea.
How We Improved
Throughout 2026, we adjusted the mission based on what we were seeing in the field.
We improved our routes and logistics.
We made reconnaissance and mapping part of our daily operations.
We strengthened safety practices.
We developed volunteer leadership.
We improved our record keeping and measurement.
We built stronger relationships with community partners.
We also began documenting what we were doing so that the experience could be shared with others.
We did not change the mission. We improved how we delivered it.
The Journey
2025 — Pilot
Does it work?
2026 — Proof of Concept
Can it operate effectively, and is the need real?
2027 — Development
How do we make it stronger and transferable?
Thank You to Our Community
I Was Thirsty would not have been possible, and could not continue without the people and organizations who support it.
To our donors: thank you for believing in the mission and providing the resources that allowed us to put water directly into the hands of people who needed it.
To our volunteers: thank you for giving your time, energy and commitment. You were the people who made the mission happen, day after day.
To our two team leaders: Aiden Masdea and Andrew (AJ) Berringer for your front-line leadership - thank you for making it work.
To our community partners: thank you for sharing your knowledge, opening doors and helping us make the mission stronger.
To Alan Auld and IMAGINE Films: Thank you for creating a documentary that captured so much more than the work of the mission. You have managed to put the heart and spirit of I WAS THIRSTY on display for all to see. Through your cameras, you captured not simply the delivery of water, but the people, the compassion, the challenges, the volunteers, and the connections that made this mission what it became.
You have given I WAS THIRSTY a story that will live beyond the summer - and for that, we are deeply grateful.
To Walmart #1165 at 1101 West Arthur Street Thunder Bay and the Manager Sinthu Shanmuganathan: thank you for ensuring that water was readily available for us.
To Reverend Joyce Yanishewski and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church: thank you for believing in this mission and providing the financial home and administrative support that allowed the mission to operate responsibly and transparently.
To the Cerson Umbrella Foundation: thank you for your philanthropic support and for believing in what this community initiative could accomplish.
And to everyone who helped in ways large or small — thank you.
I Was Thirsty is a community effort. The numbers in this report belong to all of you.
for the future - 2027 and beyond...
Where We Go Next...
We are not starting over in 2027.
We are building on what 2025 and 2026 have already established.
Our focus will be to maintain our high safety standards and make the mission more consistent and more sustainable.
We will continue improving our reconnaissance, logistics, volunteer leadership, measurement and documentation.
We will also continue developing the I WAS THIRSTY model so that the experience gained in Thunder Bay can be shared with other communities interested in establishing their own local water outreach mission.
The goal is not to create one large organization.
The goal is to help communities help their own people.
I WAS THIRSTY is no longer a concept. The Thunder Bay mission has matured into a tested operational model and is ready to support replication in other communities.
What We Learned That Others Can Use
The greatest lesson from I WAS THIRSTY may be that a community does not need a large organization or significant funding to respond effectively to an unmet humanitarian need.
Over two years, the I WAS THIRSTY outreach mission in Thunder Bay evolved from three volunteers and a simple idea into a documented, measured and tested operational model. Along the way, we developed practical approaches to safety, logistics, reconnaissance, volunteer leadership, measurement and continuous improvement.
We identified an unmet humanitarian need, designed and implemented a practical response, demonstrated that it could work at scale, measured its impact, continuously assessed and improved the operation, developed a leadership structure around it, and documented the resulting model so that other Canadian communities can adapt and reproduce the solution.
What began in Thunder Bay can now be shared with other communities.
We have documented what we learned — not as a prescription for how every community should operate, but as a practical starting point that others can adapt to their own circumstances.
The future of I WAS THIRSTY is not simply to deliver more water. It is to share what we have learned so that other communities can build their own local response.
This is the future of I WAS THIRSTY.