MONCTON – Moncton grandmother Aline Breau is hoping to help grant the wish of a child by opening up her apartment to holiday tours.
Breau has spent hours painstakingly decorating every room in her two-bedroom apartment for Christmas. Now she’s inviting people to visit and open up their wallets to help sick kids.
To say that her apartment is all decked out is an understatement — every nook and cranny is filled with holiday cheer.
“I love my village,” she said. “That’s what everybody goes for. To me that is the masterpiece.”
Breau said she believes it takes a village to help a child. Each December for the past eight years, she has offered Christmas tours of her festively decorated apartment to raise money for a local charity. This year she chose one that’s dear to her heart.
“My granddaughter, when she was eight years old, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. She went though chemo, she went through radiation and surgery. She had a wish at that time to go swimming with the dolphins in Florida.”
The wish was granted thanks to the Children’s Wish Foundation.
Kathy Saunders, who represents the New Brunswick chapter of the organization, said money raised in communities goes toward granting wishes, with the average cost for each one coming in around $10,000.
It has been 16 years since Breau’s granddaughter was sick. Now, she’s 24 and healthy, and Breau said being able to help grant the wish of another sick child her way of paying it forward. Fifty children made wishes this year, and she is hoping that by welcoming people into her home she can raise enough to grant at least one of them.
“There is no set price,” she said. “They can give whatever they feel they can afford.”
Last year, an anonymous donor gave $10,000. This year, Breau said she is hoping to top it.
“It would be great especially for the kids,” she said.
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