In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mostly on the run, his desk in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.
An altruistic couple from Montreal will distribute some $10,000 worth of gifts, or 100 toys costing $100, to 100 children from the DPJ who will not be with their families for Christmas. The Journal was able to see that it is not a small task to buy and package such a quantity of toys.
As I enter Michaël Maltais and Mike Keating's living room, I have to step over a wall of gifts.
The couches are cluttered with boxes of Polaroid cameras, Legos, clothes, shoes, kitchen sets, etc.
There is everything for young people aged 7 to 17… some of whom will soon be moving into an apartment and are preparing to do so.
Wrapping dozens of gifts is no easy task!
Louis-Philippe Messier
A plastic bag contains a bulky sloth stuffed animal:
“A child wrote to me: I want a dog bigger than a personso this is what I found!” exclaims Michaël Maltais, 45, as he corkscrews a ribbon with the blade of a scissor.
A child who requested “a doggie bigger than a person” will receive this gigantic stuffed sloth.
Louis-Philippe Messier
“My 13-year-old daughter, Bénédicte, will assist Michaël during the distribution… She will annoy the more timid young people,” enthuses Valérie Brochu, an old CEGEP friend who came to lend a hand.
Valérie Brochu came to help her old friend from CEGEP get rid of the packaging.
Louis-Philippe Messier
This Laval library employee scrupulously keeps the Excel gift register.
“We have to make sure that we don’t forget any child!” comments Mr. Maltais, human resources project manager for Hawkesbury hospital.
Volunteer brunch
This festive commotion will culminate on Sunday noon with the distribution of a hundred gifts to the children of the DPJ during a Christmas brunch offered voluntarily by the employees of Jérôme Ferrer's Europea restaurant. This is the sixth year the couple has made the children's wishes come true.
On the occasion of their marriage six years ago, MM. Keating and Maltais asked that their wedding gifts instead be monetary donations for Christmas gifts for the children of the DPJ.
“We added to the already existing event of Jérôme Ferrer and his team by adding gifts for all the young guests… and it was very moving!” says Mr. Maltais, himself the adoptive father of a teenage girl from the DPJ.
The couple with Jérôme Ferrer in front of a wonderful candy bar during a previous edition of the DPJ's Christmas brunch for young people.
Courtesy of Michaël Maltais
MM. Maltais and Keating have financed the hundred gifts they offer themselves for five years.
A race against time
“Between the time the DPJ sends the children's letters with their requests, we have about three weeks to find all the gifts… and it's not easy because some children prefer to ask for several small gifts,” explains M. . Maltese.
“Friends help us make these purchases and some refuse to be reimbursed,” he adds.
“There have already been around twenty gifts already wrapped piled up on my desk downtown for a few days and my colleagues are teasing me!” laughs Mr. Keating, 50, vice-president of mergers and acquisitions at CGI.
“This Christmas brunch and all these gifts provide magical moments for young people who really need them… and it’s one of the best times of the year for me too!” says Assunta Gallo, the director of youth protection at the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
Let us hope that this column inspires readers who have the means to imitate the initiative of the Maltais-Keating couple in other regions of Quebec.
