MIKE ATHEY
PONTIAC Nov. 11, 2020
Communities are coming together to support families hardest hit by the pandemic and makes sure children have gifts to open under Christmas trees this year.
The fire departments in Otter Lake and Thorne are spearheading an angel tree campaign. The project invites any family that needs a little bit more support to . . .
contact the group confidentially and request a gift for their little ones.
The desired gift will then be written out on paper angels that will be hung on one of several Christmas trees placed amongst the communities. Community members can then take an angel from a tree, purchase the requested gift for a child, and drop it off anonymously. A deadline of Nov. 15 is set to register for an angel.
Otter Lake Director General Andrea Lafleur set things in motion when she approached the Otter Lake Fire Department to see what they could do to help families that had lost their jobs or reduced incomes due to the effects of COVID-19.
“I remembered years ago helping with the angel trees in Shawville when I was living in Shawville,” said Lafleur. “So I approached the fire department and they were very interested.”
Lafleur said a meeting was called and both the Otter Lake and Thorne fire departments agreed to help facilitate the angel tree campaign.
“Both departments are working together,” said Caroline Gagné of the Otter Lake Fire Department. “We do our practices together and fight fires together. So why not help the community together.”
The Otter Lake RA Centre also partook in the meeting. In non-pandemic years, the centre would host a Christmas party for children in the community. With that cancelled this year, they offered to help in any way they could.
Desiree Tremblay Giroux, coordinator of the Maison des Jeunes, said there will be several angel trees set up in stores and businesses within Otter Lake and Thorne where people can find an angel and fulfill a wish for a child in the community.
She said as wishes are fulfilled, the angels will start to disappear from the trees and added “The goal in the end is to have an empty tree.”
