Yup, I'm a sentimental sap. But it still needs to be said. We all saw evidence of the amazing generosity of Calgarians this past summer with the floods and destruction. And now, we see it again, in the way people are stepping up for this family. I think it's awesome. I don't know these people from a hole in the wall - I just saw the report on Global tonight.
Link (video at the link):
Quote:
The Andre family never planned to be here.
With less than two weeks until Christmas, the family of five is living in a Calgary motel room, hundreds of kilometers from their Ontario home and the people who love them.
“We wanted the best care for [our daughter], and this is where it is,” Lisa Andre explains from just outside Unit 1 at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Down the hall, 7-year-old Aubri is undergoing treatment for cancer.
“She’s got a rare condition, an extreme high risk Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, but she also a rare chromosomal transmutation that they haven’t seen before so we wanted to be where they could fix her.”
Aubri’s parents made a fast decision to move their young family to Calgary. They arrived last week, without a place to live or friends to turn to for help.
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Quote:
{Aubri's aunt) Sarah Guenther reached out online, sharing a blog post to friends of friends on Facebook, asking if anyone could help the Andres find a place to live. The response was almost immediate.
“I had over 50 e-mails from people,” says Guenther. “Many people willing to give up their entire house during the holiday season so Phil, Lisa and the family could move in, just so they weren’t homeless over the holidays.”
Others have offered to donate holiday treats and Christmas gifts.
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We spent a lot of time at Children's, for over a year, with one of our kids, and have seen several specialists there over the years, with one of our other kids. One thing that isn't mentioned in the article, is the cost of parking at the hospital, and eating onsite. There isn't a lot of room to store food either, if you're admitted. So you're kind of stuck eating at the cafeteria, or hoping someone will bring you food from home - since they don't have a home, they're kind of up #### creek in that regard.
So if anyone is thinking of somewhere to donate money this season, please consider this young family and buy some parking passes for them. You can also buy gift cards for the cafeteria there. In addition, if you didn't already know this, there is a Starbucks there, as well as a Good Earth Cafe, which are other GC possibilities. Market Mall is just around the corner, and there's a Safeway there, so a gift card for there might be nice too, so that mom can pop over there and pick up something different for meals (their ready made meals are great for this) for a change.
Again - I don't know these people, at all. We've just been in a similar boat, though our child's illness wasn't nearly as serious as this little girl's is - so I thought I'd share the story and throw it out there that if you're feeling generous this xmas, here's an immediate need.