On Sunday, December 13th, it was bitterly cold outside but warm and welcoming inside Our Place/ Chez Nous. It took a lot of effort to move all the furniture to the basement and replace it with long tables and 103 chairs. Everyone waited expectantly for the food to arrive from the caterer. A line formed at the door was getting longer, many people arriving early, afraid that they wouldn’t get in.
The main room was decked out with many Christmas decorations from red Christmas stockings to jolly snowmen. On the side of the room was a Christmas tree full of ornaments, including little knit angels with names taped on the front. I was told that every time one of the ‘regulars’ died, an angel was placed on the Our Place/Chez Nous Christmas tree to remember them. At the Christmas party, St. Charles Parish’s Deacon Robert Gate identified two men who had passed away this year. Robert asked that a friend or family member place their angel on the tree.
One couple, who volunteer at Our Place/Chez Nous, pointed out the angel in memory of their 34 year old son who died on December 3rd, 2005. Their voice broke as they talked about how they still missed him.
“Word that there is a Christmas Dinner travels pretty fast on the street”, said Larry Stuart, Executive Director of Our Place/Chez Nous. “Often we will see people who we have never seen before and we worry about getting our 60 to 70 regulars in for the Christmas dinner and to receive their gift bag. When we reach our capacity of 103 people, we have to close our doors and unfortunately last year we had to turn people away.”
Because most organizations provide turkey dinners to the homeless during the Christmas season, Our Place/Chez Nous decided to offer a non-traditional meal. Ham, meat balls, perogies, coleslaw, buns, soft drinks and a Santa cake was served to a very grateful room full of guests.
Santa Claus in his bright red suit and white beard mingled through the crowd ringing his bell and wishing people a Merry Christmas. As they were leaving, Santa gave them a gift bag which contained some basic necessities and a few treats. Each bag contained mitts, a warm hat, a scarf, deodorant, toothpaste and a tooth brush, candy, playing cards, a comb or brush and a $10 gift certificate for Giant Tiger.
St. Charles Deacon Claude Lambert, a regular volunteer at Our Place/Chez Nous, said he was blown away with the number of people who showed up this year to help. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world. These people deserve this because they have so little.”
Rachelle Prawdzik, a grade 12 student at Collège Lorette Collegiate was one of the volunteers serving the meal. Her leadership class had collected over $200 to contribute to the Christmas dinner. Rachelle was accompanied by Nancy Duykers who is a school counselor at Collège Lorette Collegiate.
When I asked Nancy why she came to volunteer today, she replied, “I volunteered to help at Our Place/Chez Nous Christmas dinner because it felt like the right thing to do at Christmas time. I want for nothing and have been quite fortunate in my life. However, instead of giving to others as I originally intended, in the end, it was I, who received.
One hundred and three people gathered on a very cold winter night and waited "patiently" in the frigid temperatures until it was time to be invited in for Christmas dinner. The guests were polite, respectful and grateful. They were patient and appreciative. Many returned to the buffet line for seconds and some for thirds. Some returned to the buffet line simply to thank the volunteers for the delicious meal and to extend wishes of Merry Christmas.
I felt comfortable and relaxed in a room full of people I did not know. I felt humbled by the experience and quite emotional. It is said "it is better to give than to receive", but when we give from our hearts, we too, receive – ten-fold”.
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