Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 24/02) - Seeing just one face light up with a big grateful smile is enough to make it all worthwhile.

Salvation Army volunteers Louise Vertes and Jean Francois-Martin load up groceries delivered to food hamper recipients Dec. 20. - Tara Kearsey/NNSL photo

By delivering food hampers to the less fortunate, Louise Vertes and Jean-Francois Martin experience the true spirit of the Christmas season - giving.

Five years ago when Vertes began delivering the boxes filled with Christmas goodies, it only took her one day. Now it takes four days, indicating the need for assistance over the holiday season is growing.

She volunteers her time with several local organizations, but when December approaches each year she always returns to the Salvation Army Christmas assistance program.

"With the Salvation Army you see immediate, tangible and meaningful change. It makes a difference in someone having a Christmas dinner or not. It's real," she said. "You can see the benefits."

Last Wednesday through Friday evening, Vertes, who also sits on the Salvation Army business advisory board, drove around the city for hours delivering hampers.

And not only is she delivering food, she is making new friends.

"People are grateful certainly, people exchange greetings and talk about what they're doing, how they're going to spend their Christmas.

"People that receive the hampers, their gratitude is for the support of the community," she said.

Vertes has witnessed some heart-breaking situations over the years, everything from homelessness to depression.

"It's a time of year when parents want to do something special for their children and they're not able to.

"In general, it's heart-breaking that there has to be a Christmas hamper program. That's the most heart-breaking thing about it," she said.

Jean-Francois Martin knows all too well what it's like to be strapped for cash at Christmas.

As a single father with bills to pay and two children to buy presents for, he was once forced to request a hamper from the Salvation Army.

"I was working full-time and I was just barely making ends meet. Going out and buying a turkey and presents and everything for the kids is not in the budget when you're trying to catch up on bills and everything else," said Martin.

He found it "hard to swallow his pride at first and say 'yes, I need help."

"But it wasn't for me, it was for the kids. That's what it's all about.

"That year was a bad year. Then the hamper came in and it was greatly appreciated. It meant a couple extra presents under the tree for the kids."

He is now able to support his family and no longer needs the assistance of the Salvation Army. Now Martin is helping Vertes make deliver boxes and boxes filled with Christmas grub.

"In a sense, I've always wanted to help. Now it's my turn to turn it around," he said.

Martin said there are a lot of families in Yellowknife considered "poor".

"Some of them have both parents working and they can barely put food on the table, never mind anything under the tree."

But the reaction they witness as a hamper recipient opens the door makes all of the sadness disappear.

"All of them are so happy ... big smiles on faces of the young and old," said Vertes.

"That's what our reward is," added Martin.