Community comes together for local fundraiser
WOONSOCKET — Everyone who knows Christine Arel and her parents, Ovide and Jeanne Auger, know just how much they contribute to their community every year.
The family is always involved in the toy drive benefiting local children put on by the police department every year and they turn out for other projects helping their community through connections with Council 113 Woonsocket of the Knights of Columbus, All Saints Parish, and other groups like Jeanne Beausoleil-Michon’s New Beginnings soup kitchen program.
But the shoe was definitely on the other foot Thursday evening at St. Joseph Veterans Association at 99 Louise St. when another local charitable group, Hearts with Hope, had Arel and her family in the spotlight.
The evening was a fundraiser to help Christine and her daughter Rebecca Arel get past a medical crisis cropping up when Rebecca needed treatment of a brain and spinal canal condition known as Chiari malformation.
Rebecca underwent surgery to provide more space within her skull for portions of her brain and spent time in the hospital after the procedures were completed and she began her recovery.
Christine had to be out of work a lot during that time but didn’t think much of it while setting out once again to work with
members of the police department such as Det. Sgt. John Scully and Det. Jesse Nunnemacher when the toy drive got going before the holidays.
And that is where a bunch of Villa Novans from Woonsocket High School at their Hearts with Hope organization helping WHS alumni got involved.
Hearts with Hope made the Arels a focus of yet another of their fundraising campaigns and put together Thursday’s spaghetti dinner at the veterans hall to raise some funding to cover Christine’s lost wages and some of their pending medical costs.
“It’s just amazing,” Christine said while enjoying the dinner with Rebecca, her two other daughters, Brianna and Emma, her parents and many, many friends.
“It wasn’t something that I was expecting and it was a hard pill to swallow to accept this,” Arel said while noting she was not used to being on the receiving side.
“But the members of the Hearts with Hope committee said “this is going to happen and you just have to go with it,” she added.
Rebecca said she is feeling much better after having her surgery and was also very impressed by the outpouring of support her family was receiving on Thursday.
“I would never have asked anyone to do this because in my family we are always trying to do things for someone else,” she said. “It’s just very nice of them,” she added.
Det. Sgt. Scully and his wife, Dawn, sat with Christine and her family and also on hand was Det. Nunnemacher, Capt. Ed Cunanan, Police Chief Thomas F. Oates, III, Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, and mix of Villa Novans from a number of the school’s graduating classes.
City Councilman Jon Brien explained the organization was started by members of his own class from 1988 when they started to see a number of their classmates battling cancer.
Since then, the group has expanded to include volunteers from other classes and to taking on a number of assistance projects through the course of a year.
“It’s always great anytime you see the community coming out to help someone like this,” Brien said. “It’s been a great organization,” he added while recalling how it all started.
Paul Bourget, chairman of the Woonsocket School Committee, said Hearts with Hope has now expanded far beyond what it had originally set out to do and as a result is touching even more people in the community like the Arels.
As one of the Auger’s longtime friends and a member of Council 113, Bourget said he was happy to see Christine and Rebecca benefiting from Hearts with Hope’s work.
“They give so much helping others, it’s nice to see everyone coming together to help a family in need,” he said.
The fact the room was filled with supporters of the Arels and Augers was a good indication of what they have done for others in the past, Baldelli-Hunt, another Villa Novan, noted.
“I’m very pleased at turnout and support here night,” she said.
“We all know the Augers and their children and grandchildren. They are wonderful people and they are continually giving back to the community, and it feels good to be at an event where we are supporting them,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
“If the world was made up of people like the Augers, what a wonderful place it would be because they are exactly the kind of people you would want for your family and your neighbors,” she said.
“It’s just a good feeling to know that we’re able to give at little back to them and come together to show them our support,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
Jeff Gaulin, a past Grand Knight for Council 113 and the to
R.I. Program Director for the Knights of Columbus, said Christine and her family have been helping the police department with its toy drive for years and also worked on some of the community assistance projects the Knights of Columbus have run.
“They are always doing things for everybody else and I always say, what goes around, comes around,” Gaulin said.
Eugene Jalette, the city’s Public Safety Director, also took that view while noting the Auger’s help with the toy drive each year. Jeanne and Ovide’s late son, Ron, had been a police dispatcher who also helped out with the drive, and he noted the family kept on with that work when he passed away after an illness in 2009.
“The Auger family has always been a giving family and it’s time the community gives back to them, and it’s nice to help them in a trying time,” he said.
“It also shows that we appreciate what they have given to the community and what they have given to the police department,” he added.
Mike Heroux, a Villa Novan, and member of St. Joseph Veterans Association, was among the event’s organizers and helped with preparing the dinner.
Jade Illum, a culinary teacher at the Beacon Charter High School for the Arts, made cupcakes for dessert and also brought along students to help serve the meal. The evening included music from a DJ and also a raffle.
Donations may be mailed to Hearts with Hope, Inc., P.O. Box 365, Woonsocket, R.I., 02895, and can be visited on the web at www.heartswhope. org.