Dillico Anishinabek Family Care launches annual Christmas Wish campaign
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Biigtigong Nishnaabeg’s Dustin Gagne performed a blessing to kick off Dilico Anishinabek Family Care’s annual Christmas Wish campaign on Nov. 17 at Creekside Nursery and Garden Centre’s Christmas Market in Thunder Bay. Dilico aims to fill 800 Christmas Wish bags this year for babies, children, and youth in the community to ensure that all children experience joy during the holiday season.
“It’s just to see all the wonderful smiles on the kids’ faces when they receive their bags and they get into the Christmas spirit,” Gagne says, noting that he sang a song by Alex Copenace. “It’s a song that’s very special to me — I just love it.”
Fort William’s Evelyn Pelletier, Sarah Pelletier, and Audrey Sawchyn, who have participated in the Christmas Wish campaign for many years, also highlighted the importance of the campaign.
“It’s so important in our lives — I’ve been actively involved in it for the last 14 years,” Evelyn says. “It’s been so important as a teaching within our home and within our family system to be able to share and do acts of kindness during this season, and it’s been a joyful time for all of us.”
Evelyn says they also include their children and grandchildren in the Christmas Wish campaign, which provides an opportunity for families, businesses, workplaces, friend groups, churches, schools, and other groups to fill a Christmas Wish bag based on a child or youth’s needs and Christmas wishes.
“My grandsons really get excited about it because they also help in being able to fill those bags with us, so that act of kindness and that act of giving is very important,” Evelyn says.
“It’s nice to fill a bag with things like hygiene products, socks, mitts, hats and necessities – all of which are items that are greatly appreciated by the children and youth. But what makes Christmas Wish so special is that it’s individualized so that every child gets that wonderful feeling that comes with opening the present they’d been dreaming of. It’s a chance for children to get something that’s unique to their interests. They can feel the joy of the season just like their friends and peers this Christmas.”
The Christmas Wish bags are available at the Dilico Anishinabek Family Care office at 200 Anemki Place in Fort William, Firedog Communications at 32 Court St. South in Thunder Bay and at two Starbucks locations, at the Arthur Street Marketplace and the Thunder Centre in Thunder Bay. The bags need to be filled and returned to Firedog Communications by Dec. 5.
“It’s important to come out just to ensure all our kids in the communities have a gift to open at Christmas,” Sarah says. “Sometimes some of the families don’t have the financial resources to go out and get those things, so it’s always special to have a gift for the kids on Christmas.”
Sarah says she has worked with many of the children and youth before to gather information and details about what they want for Christmas.
“Usually, they are always very happy because it’s very specific to what they wanted,” Sarah says. “So it’s been awesome — they really seem to love it.”
Sawchyn adds that the Christmas Wish campaign has become a tradition for her family.
“We’ve been able to pass on teachings to our children about caring for other people,” Sawchyn says. “Christmas has always been a magical time and every child deserves to have that as a reality, so come on out and help us fill a Christmas Wish bag and give a child some magic on Christmas.”
This year’s Christmas Wish campaign includes an option to add a copy of Dilico’s new book, How I Found My Voice, which is about a young Indigenous person searching for the courage to speak up, to a Christmas Wish bag.