Generous donation given to Moncton’s training program for unemployed NBers

MONCTON, N.B. – A retired corrections officer has made a generous donation to a program helping unemployed New Brunswickers find work.

John Cormier saw a Global News report while he was cleaning out his garage earlier this week. The report was about a program called Second Chance that teaches people basic job skills, such as woodworking, over a 12-week program.

Furniture built and refinished at the work shop is sold at the Enviro Plus furniture shop and all of the money goes back into the Second Chance program.

So Cormier donated all his unused tools to the program.

“This is a good outfit,” he said. “This is good people that do good work so I just wanted my tools that I was going to give away to be of benefit to somebody.”

Albert Butt is the program’s woodworking instructor.

But years ago, he says he crossed paths with Cormier, while he was an inmate at Dorchester Penitentiary.

“I recognized him, yes,” he said. “I didn’t say anything to him, but that’s okay.”

Butt says Cormier’s donation will go a long way to help others find work.

“We could use donations,” he said. “We don’t have a lot.”

“A lot of people can’t get jobs because they’ve got low self esteem,” he said. “But they need to get out there and talk to employers because their skills would get them the jobs.”

Ron Carier is a student at the program. Carier struggles with reading and writing but he hopes the skills he’s learning at Second Chance will help him become a carpenter.

He says donations help him and his classmates get ahead.

“It makes us feel good,” he said. “It makes us happy.”