Downtown Charlie shares his wealth
Man parcels off $100K settlement to Yellowknife charities
Charlie delorme tells me to hold on for a second. He needs to check his bank book to confirm what his current bank balance is because he has been writing a lot of big cheques lately and, he says, he is not done writing them yet.
mr. delorme is on a donation spree, a goodwill binge, sprinkling bucks around to all the organizations in yellowknife that he believes in. The yellowknife Salvation Army got $5,000, another $10,000 went to the Stanton Territorial Hospital foundation and another $2,000 to the Sidedoor youth centre. every time mr. delorme leaves his front door and makes the walk downtown — his nickname is downtown charlie — it seems as though somebody in yellowknife is cashing in while everybody winds up smiling, including the guy giving away the money.
He is pushing 65, that guy, has achy, arthritic knees and isn’t going to live forever and having all the dough in the world — his balance is $100,000, he finally says — doesn’t make a difference if you don’t do something when you can and, the way downtown charlie sees things, now he can.
“I don’t know what I’d do with all that money,” he says. “$100,000 is a lot for someone like me.”
by “someone like me,” he means someone who spent close to 40 years living on the streets. mr. delorme’s voice sounds ragged and weary from a lifetime of drink, and his memory can be fuzzy in spots and, in pictures, he is not exactly the most photogenic. And yet his greatest gift to yellowknife, to all of us, even more than the cash he has been giving away, could be charlie himself.
There is a common, here-we-go again narrative out there, about downon-their luck types winning big in the lottery and then, a few years later, being down on their luck again after blowing their fortunes on bad decisions. mr. delorme recently received a settlement from the federal government for his years spent in residential schools. His first impulse wasn’t to head straight to the nearest bar but to stroll down to the cIbc to open an account and ask for a chequebook.
He has been signing cheques ever since.
Garry Hubert, the executive director of the Sidedoor youth centre, explains that mr. delorme’s generosity predates his newly acquired wealth. He tells me a story of a funeral reception in the basement of the local catholic church. It was potluck. charlie walked in and plunked down a tin of hearty beef stew.
“That is charlie,” says mr. Hubert. “He didn’t have anything, but he did the best with what he had.”
Now he has a $100,000 in the bank. when he donated $5,000 to the Salvation Army, his only request was that the staff prepare a first-rate supper — “steak with all the fixings” — for the residents. (charlie prefers hotdogs and hamburgers.)
He tells me he has always worked at something. caring for people’s lawns, shovelling snow, collecting bottles and cans. but this coming winter his rent is already paid. There is a roof over his head, hot dogs in the fridge and an itchy feeling in his feet to get out walking, again, down to the bank.
“I am going to give $5,000 to the catholic church next,” mr. delorme says. “The priest, there is only one here, and he is always working so hard.
“It seems to me like he could use some help.”