It’s all about helping good people
One night visiting a family made a great impression on this reporter
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/12/2014 (4130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
I was still a young and quite inexperienced reporter when, on a frigid December night in 1989, I got to play Santa on Stella Avenue.
I had arrived at the Free Press offices that afternoon for a night shift when my editor suggested I head out with photographer Phil Hossack to deliver hampers for the Christmas Cheer Board. I was game but also a bit concerned: Would those folks receiving Christmas charity want to talk about their circumstances?
A few hours later, the air thick with hazy ice fog, we knocked on our first door on Stella Avenue and met Ava and Evaristo, a young couple with three children. The family invited us in to drop off a hamper of wrapped toys and a frozen turkey. Although they were unsure about inviting a reporter and photographer into their home, the mood was pure, unabashed joy.
As their three children — aged two and seven — wrestled and giggled over the new presents, Ava talked about how much they appreciated the Cheer Board hamper. And how it really helped make Christmas special in their home.
You see, both parents worked very hard to support their family. Ava earned $5.15 per hour working in a garment factory that gave its employees a very special Christmas present each year: The factory shut down for two weeks of unpaid vacation every December. Evaristo worked a very long overnight shift in a bakery and made $8.50 per hour, arriving home each day about an hour after his kids had left for school.
This was a family that paid all its bills and provided all of the necessities of life. However, Christmas was all about luxuries and excess. And after taking care of all of the basics, Ava said there just wasn’t much left over for Christmas trimmings.
“(The hamper) helps, especially the presents,” Ada told me. “It’s very tough this Christmas. Everything is expensive. You can’t buy anything now for the children for $10.”
I have never forgotten that night. Both because of the incredible courage and humility shown by the families we met, but also because of the reaction the story got the next day in the Free Press newsroom.
Shortly after I arrived for work, a grizzled veteran editor came over with a copy of the paper. He told me how much he liked the story of Ava and Evaristo.
Then, much to my surprise, he wiped a tear from his eye.
He went on to tell me that after reading the story, he started thinking about how lucky he was, and how much money he and his family spent on each other to celebrate Christmas. And about how Ava was just trying to find presents for her kids that were less than $10.
Ava and Evaristo’s story is, for me at least, the essence of the Cheer Board. It’s about people down on their luck or those who have no luck at all. It’s about helping people who work hard and still can’t find money for luxuries like presents and other trimmings. Most importantly, it’s a story about the community lending a helping hand in a way that says, “We understand how tough this is.”
There isn’t a Christmas that goes by that I don’t think of my sojourn to Stella Avenue and how much need there is at this time of year to provide for those people who aren’t as lucky as my family. I think about the families who open Cheer Board hampers to find dignity and hope and happiness.
And finally, I remember how much need there is out there. Because $10 doesn’t buy much in the way of Christmas joy for a child.
dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan.
Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan.
Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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