A recent stroke of good fortune turned into a giving moment for one local resident, just in time for the holiday season.
It started when Northern Source Rentals decided to embark on a Facebook promotion, promising they would raffle off a Bowflex machine once their page hit a certain number of likes.
The winner, Nicole Leroux, didn’t have any room for the new piece of equipment, but she did have some other ideas in mind.
She spoke with Bryce Balmer, the owner of Northern Source Rentals, and informed him that he could either redraw for the prize, or they could auction the machine off and donate the proceeds to charity. They chose to embark on the latter.
Again using Facebook, they put the machine up for auction, and after a bidding war, it ended up bringing in $1,605 to be split between three groups.
The first organization that came to mind was Leroux’s son’s hockey team, the St. Paul Stahl Peterbilt Atom 1 Canadiens, who are raising money to attend the Stollery hockey tournament in Edmonton.
“That’s kind of where it started. I decided that a third of it would go to the Stollery for our team, and that a third would go to Santa’s Elves, and that the other third would go to the New Year’s Eve Family Benefit,” Leroux said.
She said the decision to include Santa’s Elves on the list was an easy one to make.
“We have kids ourselves, and I work in the school,” Leroux said. “Christmas is for the kids. They always want to wake up Christmas morning and find something.”
She again included the hockey players in her initiative, and the children helped Leroux select the toys that would be donated to the Santa’s Elves program.
“They had fun doing it. It was nice to see them excited to pick something out for someone else,” Leroux said.
At the end of the day, Leroux was impressed that the community of St. Paul has so many avenues to connect those who have a little extra to those who need a little help.
“I think it’s great to have that community support. I think the community is really good when it comes to helping people in need and stepping in,” she said. “It would be nice to see it happen more throughout the whole year, but it seems like the holiday is the time of year when people feel more giving.”
Leroux didn’t have any publicity in mind when she made her decision to give, but the hope now is that others may learn from her story and decide to follow suit.
“I didn’t want any recognition for this at all, that’s not what I was looking for,” she said. “I like to be able to give. It was an easy thing for me to do.”
