Remand centre gift bag program a reminder of Christmas teachings

People awaiting trial at the Edmonton Remand Centre have been receiving gifts from St. Albert students for more than 20 years. Nahreman Issa reports.

Greater St. Albert Catholic School Division students have joined in the generosity of the season by preparing 3,000 gift bags for Edmonton Remand Centre inmates and less fortunate Edmontonians.

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Local churches collect the items for the bags; things like chocolate, a notebook and pen, and scriptures.

Students at École Sainte Marguerite d’Youville and other schools package and decorate the packages.

Half will go to Edmonton Remand Centre and the other half to Sacred Heart Parish.

“It’s a great way for my children to learn that serving others is important,” said parent Dan Veeneman. “Especially at Christmas, where (sic) we celebrate the light being brought into the darkness. This program is a very practical concrete example of that.”

The tradition is 26 years old, starting around the time Sainte Marguerite d’Youville principal Danielle Skalski’s sister was in high school there, and continuing throughout the time her own children were old enough to participate.

“The fact that that might be the only Christmas gift they receive… has a significant impact on the students,” Skalski said.

The exercise helps students apply religious teachings to the real world, she added.

“Jesus never really chose who was most deserving of His love, and I think we have to remember that every person is a human being that has inherent dignity and that is deserving of love. Oftentimes, the people that are receiving the bags are separated from their families and are lonely at Christmas. Bringing a little sense of hope and joy to them during the holiday season makes a huge impact.”

‘The stigma is the point’

Just like when retired remand centre chaplain Jerry Moran started the program, it is not unanimously celebrated by the school community.

“Every year, there was always a parent that objected to it,” Moran recalled during an interview on Wednesday.

“I can understand from your point of view, especially if you’ve been abused or a victim, or you are frightened by somebody who’s done something. You can begin to think that all the people there are the same and, ‘Why should those people be given special treatment at Christmas time?’” Moran said.

That’s one reason the gift bags are split between the remand centre and inner city.

This was his response to any complaints:

“Please allow us to do this,” he said, emphasizing “us.”

“You also know people in need, and we would hope that you would do something for people in need at Christmas time also.”

To religious education consultant Lynn Zakreski, “The stigma is the point of this type of project.”

She told CTV News Edmonton, “As Catholics, we’re asked to love everybody, not just people that we consider worthy or easy to love.”

Both she and Moran called delivering the bags “an extremely moving experience.”

“Men… don’t like to show emotions. And some of these guys have been a part of perhaps gangs, have been involved in violent things…. So when those people receive them, they tear up. Of course, they can’t tear up, so they take their bag, they turn away, and they go back into their room so they can have some quiet time,” Moran said.

One inmate made a book out of the gift bags he received over years. Moran kept it.

He said, “They cherish the bags.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Darcy Seaton and Nahreman Issa