Riverview, N.B., teen starts the Giving Tree to help kids at Christmas

16-year-old Sophie Dulessis is collecting Christmas toys for kids through her Giving Tree.

A Grade 11 student in Riverview, N.B., doesn’t want children to doubt the magic of Santa Claus.

“I feel like everybody deserves to have a magical Christmas no matter who they are, where they come from and what they have. So I want to help as many people as I can to have this magical Christmas,” said Sophie Duplessis.

The 16-year-old has started the Giving Tree Project and has created a Facebook page so that generous people can donate toys and other items for kids in need this holiday season.

It’s a digital giving tree, or an angel tree, and it helps families fulfill their children’s Christmas wishes.

Parents can reach out and apply for the program by providing their contact information, child’s name and their wish list.

“Once we get that information, we create child profiles, and we post them on our Facebook page. From the Facebook page people in the community can pick a child profile, take it off the Facebook page and they can go and buy any items on the wish list that they would like,” said Sophie.

Lego, dolls, crafts and art sets are on the top of children’s wish lists this year, Sophie said.

So far, Sophie has secured sponsorships for 27 children in the Greater Moncton area and she hopes to help more.

Her mother Sarah helps her collect the gifts, but said Sophie is pretty much doing everything by herself.

“She started the Facebook page on her own. She’s made all the posts on her page by herself. I’m basically just here for moral support and to be a taxi driver because she can’t get herself around to pick up the gifts for people,” said Sarah.

With inflation and the cost of living, it’s no shock to Sarah there’s a need for help.

“I’m not surprised that there are people that are struggling a little bit and if she can offer that support to people, I’m really, really proud of her,” said Sarah.

Sophie got the idea for the Giving Tree from a community engagement project at Riverview High School last year.

She collected toy and book donations and gave them to a pre-existing non-profit in the Greater Moncton area to distribute them throughout the community.

“I collected so many donations, so many toys and it really inspired me. I was really touched by the response of the community and how much they reacted and decided to help out with the donations. So I decided to bring that forward this year and kind of advance it and expand on it to help people,” said Sophie.

If there’s more community engagement and more people step forward to help, then more children will be able to be sponsored.

On Tuesday night, Sophie posted an update on the Giving Tree Project Facebook page.

“We were fortunately able to reopen our form to a few more families!” reads the post.

There’s also been a lot of kind and encouraging words on the project’s Facebook page.

“I’m so proud,” said Sarah. “She’s very smart and very kind and she’s got a really big heart and she just wants everybody to feel all of the love that she gets to feel.”

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