National Post (National Edition)
‘Helping brings you happiness’
QUEBEC WOMAN USES LOTTERY WINNINGS TO BENEFIT NEEDY
Money, indeed, can buy happiness, Rachel Lapierre will attest.
But in a strange twist to that age-old axiom, Lapierre has used her money, acquired from a 2013 lottery win, to benefit others rather than selfishly spending it on herself.
The 57-year-old resident of Piedmont still lives in the same house. Although she did purchase a new Subaru last year, Lapierre did so only after her last car was stolen. And she laughed about it when sharing the experience.
“Honestly, helping (people) brings you happiness,” Lapierre said in a telephone interview.
“When you buy a new car, you’re going to be happy for a week, maybe two. After that, it’s part of your body. But when I hear about a mother of four with cancer and she’s crying and I give her food and love, this stays in my heart longer than two weeks.
“I don’t say nice things are not fun,” added the mother of four grown children who has received plenty of publicity the last five years but has remained level-headed. “I still appreciate a good bottle of wine. But I don’t need it to be happy. Happiness comes from the inside.”
Although Lapierre said she rarely buys lottery tickets, a voice in the back of her head told her to purchase one in 2013 while shopping at a Stsauveur grocery store. She won Loto-québec’s Gagnant à Vie, providing her with a weekly cheque of $1,000 for the remainder of her life.
Although she quit her job as an emergency-room nurse, Lapierre did so only to devote all her attention to her philanthropic work.
She had been completing humanitarian missions for more than two decades before establishing a nonprofit foundation, Le Book Humanitaire. It co-ordinates volunteers worldwide with people in need, primarily working in emergency and crisis situations. Lapierre particularly has a soft spot for refugees.
Lapierre, born in Îlesde-la-madeleine, said she believes she inherited this magnanimity from her mother. But Lapierre was quick to quash the suggestion this makes her a noble individual.
“I’m very lucky to be able to do it,” she said. “When you do a good deed, feel your heart and soul, it makes you feel very, very good. I feel I’m very lucky to be able to do a lot of good deeds every day.”
Lapierre is the founder and president of the nonprofit foundation. She oversees a staff of 10 full-time volunteers including her sister, Guylaine, the vice-president responsible for Montreal.
Le Book Humanitaire has 30,000 followers on various social media platforms, Lapierre said. Last year alone, she said the foundation handled 30,127 cases, of which 98 per cent were resolved satisfactorily. No problem is considered too big or too small, even if it requires listening to a lonely person on the telephone, she has said.