Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 13/99) - Yellowknife's Heather LaFoy doesn't just talk about helping the less fortunate in the world -- she takes action.

At the age of 19, the St. Patrick high school graduate is currently in the midst of a year-long adventure in Mexico. She's volunteering at an orphanage in the tiny community of Amecuaca that serves as a home to 40 boys.

With this in mind, her mother, Nadia, a special needs assistant at N.J. Macpherson school, decided her daughter's location allowed her school a special opportunity for Christmas. With fund-raising and charity drives a tradition each year, it seemed the perfect time for the school to help out in a far off community with a Yellowknife connection.

A highly successful event was born.

"We ended up with 17 boxes of great items," LaFoy says of the Christmas drive at N.J. Macpherson. "The whole school was involved."

The boxes, which include food, clothing, toys and cards and letters from N.J. students, will soon be sent on to Houston, Texas, courtesy of First Air and Air Canada. The cargo will then be sent directly to the orphanage. Heather LaFoy will be on the scene to report on reactions among the boys at the orphanage.

As a preview, Nadia LaFoy, who visited her daughter over the holidays, took 40 Hot Wheels cars and numerous McDonald's toys, as well as Christmas greetings from N.J. students with her on the trip.

"They were just amazed, particularly at the letters," she says of the reaction in Mexico.

It is now hoped a mail exchange between the two groups of youth will get under way.

Back in Yellowknife, N.J. students seem thrilled at the whole project.

"I thought I should bring something in because I felt like helping out," student Katy Nitah says.

Fellow student Michael McCormick agrees.

"I've been to Mexico a couple of times and I know what it is like," he says. "I wanted to help out."

"I brought in food," another student, Catherine Graydon, says.