Every penny counts for the Gazette Christmas Fund

The countdown to Christmas is on. Many of us are braving the crowds, pulling out credit cards and ticking off items from our loved ones’ holiday lists. Christmas can be an expensive time, a feast of overindulgence as well as a time of generosity. According to a survey by PwC, Canadian consumers intend to spend an average of $1,563 on food and gifts in 2018, an increase of 3.4 per cent over 2017. But while buying the latest fashions or stocking up on the trendiest toys, perhaps we might spare a thought for the less fortunate. For 51 years now, the Gazette Christmas Fund has been collecting money to give $125 cheques to those who have fallen on hard times. While the Montreal Gazette covers the administrative costs, organizations like Sun Youth, the Old Brewery Mission and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society distribute your donations to the neediest Montrealers. Some of the recipients’ hard-luck stories are featured daily online and in our news pages. They make for some heartbreaking reading. There are women and children who have escaped domestic violence struggling to make a fresh start. There are new parents and new immigrants, adjusting to new circumstances. There are the sick and mentally ill who can’t work and have a hard time putting food on the table. There are parents caring for disabled kids and grandparents putting aside their own health issues to help their children raise their grandchildren. Often, they are confronting these challenges alone, with few resources or with youngsters depending on them. Many are also lonely — the tragic plague of modern life.

If not for the efforts of community organizations working tirelessly to give them a hand, they would be very isolated indeed. But you, dear reader, can help, too. To the well off, $125 might not seem like much, especially compared to our own holiday spending budgets. But when you don’t have a lot to begin with, a little goes a long way. Many of those receiving Gazette Christmas Fund cheques are using them to cover the costs of basic items you and I take for granted, like winter boots, a warm coat or groceries. Others are using the money to do something special for the children in their lives. One mother said the money was going straight to furnishing a new apartment after living with her kids in a shelter. Many are just paying bills. Christmas is the time to think of others, even as we prepare to shell out for those near and dear. It’s a time to summon human empathy and withhold judgment, to share what we have with those who have less. As we imagine our own kids’ eyes lighting up as they unwrap piles of presents on Christmas morning, try contemplating the delight even the tiniest surprise will bring a needy child, not to mention the relief it will offer their parents. As you tuck into your own turkey or yule log, or sip from a flute of fine champagne, imagine the satisfaction a celebratory meal will bring to the belly of someone who often goes hungry. And in Montreal, that happens much more than it should. Even as the jobless rate drops and the economy booms, some 21 per cent of Montrealers live in poverty, according to Centraide. That means 200,000 people don’t get enough to eat and 125,000 work but are hardly scraping by. Moisson Montréal, one of the city’s largest food banks, provided monthly support to 137,000 people in 2017, of them 41,500 were children under age 18. These are just snapshots of need that persists, year after year, despite our tremendous collective wealth. But Christmas is one day when everyone should feel loved and be fed, no matter their troubles. And the Gazette Christmas Fund can make a difference with a cheque handed out for that one important occasion. Every year, Gazette readers open their wallets — and their hearts. Last Christmas, $801,159 was raised, lifting the spirits of 6,500 families and individuals. No donation is too small. Every penny counts. Even spare change is welcome. Generosity is not about the amount given, but the sentiment behind it. Christmas should not be about how much you get, but what you give. In fact, you get by giving. And by giving to strangers, the gesture takes on that much more significance. Your donations will bring a small measure of comfort to those who have little. And in a season brimming with joy and excess, the small things often count the most.