CHRISTMAS FUND RETURNS
Help us help some needy families get happy holidays
Every year about this time, I write a Saturday column about the Montreal Gazette Christmas Fund.
This year, before I got started, I read through 30 or so applications from people hoping to receive a cheque from the fund.
Their words were a powerful reminder of why we at the Gazette are launching the 51st annual Christmas Fund campaign Saturday.
The applications came from a wide range of people who had given us permission to share their stories with you.
Some were single parents with young children, some were older people living alone, others were far from home and family. Bad fortune in some form had afflicted all of them; losing a job or getting injured were cited often.
We asked all of them the same question: “What will you do with the money?”
The most frequent answer, by far, was “Buy food.”
There were other responses that stopped me short. “For my child.” “Clothes for children.”
For these recipients of the $125 Christmas Fund cheques, the money will not go to a special meal or holiday finery, but to help make ends meet — for once.
So once again, on behalf of those applicants and thousands of others, I am asking you to support the Christmas Fund.
Last year, with the help of 150 community partners, organizations like the Old Brewery Mission, Sun Youth and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, we provided cheques to about 6,500 needy families.
Total donations for 2016 were $812,000. The smallest was an
anonymous donation of $1.50.
The largest donation was $15,000 from Inflight Canada, a regular contributor to the fund. This year, I have already heard from one set of regular contributors: the organizers of the annual Art MacDonald Memorial curling tournament.
On Thursday night, the Royal Montreal Curling Club hosted Pointe Claire for the ninth edition of the event. Twenty-four curlers on three rinks competed for the Art MacDonald Trophy. They raised about $2,200, making their total contribution over the last nine years about $25,000. (Congratulations, Pointe Claire — I understand you won it in a rock-count tie breaker.)
I hope you will join them in contributing this year, as you have over the last half century.
The Gazette absorbs all the costs of administering the fund, so your contributions go directly to the needy.
In the coming weeks our reporters will tell you more about some of the people being helped by the Christmas Fund.
You will also start to see Christmas Fund donation coupons in the daily edition.
Thank you in advance for your generosity.