The St. Paul Community Family Benefit Society rang in 2018 with a New Year’s Eve Benefit Dance featuring a silent auction, music by The Torpedoes, and attendance from some of the families it has helped over the last 10 years.
Lori Letourneau has been with the society since it began a decade ago. She says the organization plays an integral role in helping those in need.
“We fundraise in the community and then we try and help out families that are going through a crisis, or some type of tragedy in the year,” she explains.
Letourneau says the Society has donated $158,000 to 15 families over the years, and estimated earning about $20,000 through the benefit dance and silent auction this year.
“Primarily, we help people that fall between the cracks,” said Letourneau. “We have (other programs) that pay for people with cancer and other things, but some people just fall between the cracks and there’s no one else to help them but the community.”
Letourneau is one of three people on the committee who have been with the group since the beginning. Tammy Yuschyshyn, the current chairperson, is another, along with Bobbi Jones, the group’s secretary.
The start of the Family Benefit Society began when a friend’s family had twins born at just 25 weeks. This created financial and emotional strain, and the idea of a benefit dance was born, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to the family. It has carried on ever since.
Chris Campbell and his family were one of the families that received help from the society in 2017.
“They donated $7,000 dollars to my family to help us with hospital fees because (we) had a sick baby. We were in the NICU and the Ronald McDonald House for a while,” said Campbell.
“While I was working in Lloydminster, St. Paul and Edmonton, I was juggling a bunch of jobs, and bills can pile up, so they donated (the money) to us in a very needed position, and so I’m forever grateful.”
Campbell couldn’t say enough nice things about the people and organizations that have donated and helped other families in similar situations.
“You don’t think about the help that people give and (how it helps) you until you’re in that position. I’m not hurting by any means, but that donation to us was in a very needed time, and I can’t say anything but thank you. They’re awesome people . . . That donation actually saved me.”
