Mom sells trees out of gratitude
She and her daughter are giving back to the organization that helped get her back on her feet
Three years ago, Marcia Tait turned to Aunt Leah’s Place in desperation: she was homeless, had lost custody of her children, and had little hope. Today, she and her youngest daughter Makani volunteer at Aunt Leah’s Christmas tree sales lot — because Marcia wants to thank the organization that restored her hope, and because Makani adores the trees.
“She just loves the smell, and the meeting of people, and being able to show them where the different trees are. She talks to the kids and gets them to brighten up,” Marcia Tait said. “She knows the difference between the six different types of trees (that are sold). It is so sweet.”
Aunt Leah’s, a New Westminster-based charity that helps youth aging out of foster care and mothers at risk of losing their children, sold 5,500 Christmas trees at five Metro Vancouver lots last year, taking in nearly $500,000. All the proceeds go toward the charity’s supported housing — where Tait found a home when she sought help in February 2015.
“They provided me with stable housing, so I wasn’t homeless anymore. I had a room and we had started setting up more set visits with my children. They taught me a lot of the basic life skills that I had lost or wasn’t taught growing up with my own family,” Tait said.
Aunt Leah’s has been selling trees to fund its charitable work since the 1990s — in its first year, it had just one lot and sold about 500 trees. As the Christmas tree sales have expanded, so too has demand on the organization due to the high cost of housing, the opioid overdose epidemic, and the increasing challenges facing foster kids as they lose all support at age 19, said executive director Sarah Stewart.
“There is homelessness. And more and more we hear about young people despairing and they are taking their lives. It’s grown and gotten worse since these tree lots started. So it’s become more important, these trees lots and the money that we raise for these young people,” Stewart said. “It’s scary out there.” New to Aunt Leah’s this year is a 10-unit apartment building and a five-bedroom house in New Westminster, which they are operating for B.C. Housing and hope to eventually own. This is in addition to another five-bedroom house the organization was already running so young mothers and their children would have a place to live and access to education, employment and life skills programs.
Statistics show that young people are living longer with their parents today, often because they can’t afford to move out on their own or need to pay off student loans. Stewart said that is what Aunt Leah’s is providing to young women who don’t have this traditional family support network.
Aunt Leach’s was recently recognized by Charity Intelligence, a group that analyzes the efficiency of charities, as one of the top 10 “impact” charities in Canada — meaning they make the most of every donation. On average, these top charities “are likely to produce an average of over $600 in value from a $100 gift,” the watchdog organization says.
Tait is now a volunteer peer mentor for Aunt Leah’s, and is able to share her story with other scared young women when they come looking for help — she can tell them how she is now raising Makani in Aunt Leah’s second-stage housing and has been able to come to terms with her difficult past so she can forge ahead with her future.
And she and her daughter are among more than 500 volunteers at the five Aunt Leah’s Christmas tree lots this season — which is a requirement, not an option, as far as Makani is concerned.
“I would never hear the end of it if my daughter found out we weren’t volunteering at the tree lot,” Tait said, laughing. “She’s been looking forward to volunteering for the tree lot since August.”