Date: June 1st, 2012
Time: 19:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Location: École secondaire Daniel-Johnson
1100 boul. du Tricentenaire, Montréal, QC H1B 3A8
Enter via the North side near the tennis courts (upper entrance)
Price: 5,00 $ at the door

There will be a jewellry and accessory sale as well as door prizes.

Give to the Elves !

Indeed, to finance its holiday gift distributions to lone or isolated persons affected by HIV-AIDS, the Foundation will hold a YARD SALE on Saturday May 28th (or the next day if rainy).

The Foundation calls upon its friends who want to give away things it can re-sell.

The Elves are looking for furniture, stoneware, tableware, toys, trinkets, cds, dvds, etc., all clean and in good working condition.

Please, no clothes or encyclopedias.

You can bring your stuff the days prior to the sale by appointment (call 514 435-6763 or email us) from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, to 7000 Molson St. in Montréal.

The yard sale will take place the following Saturday, at the same address.

The Elves are also looking for volunteers for the Friday evening and weekend. If you have a couple of hours to give, do contact us!

Indeed, with the difficult economic climate, we could not reach our fundraising goals. We still covered our main clientèle’s needs – lone or isolated people affected by HIV-Aids – by making the most of our budget by shopping wisely and thanks to the increased collboration of partners. We could count on the renewed support of  Marché des saveurs du Québec, of Paramount Paper, of Canus (Caprina) and of MVT Transport Conseil, as well as new partnerships with Transport Robert and Jouets Choochoo.

View the full album on Picasa Web.

At the wrapping itself, let us first highlight the fact that Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf was hosting the Elves’ Workshop for the 7th consecutive year (joy of joys!). We must also mention the contributions of  Rôtisserie Fusée (rue Bernard – volunteer’s dinner on Friday) and the businesses who provided door prizes to be drawn throughout the weekend : L’Assomoir (rue Bernard),  the Cirque du Soleil, the Marché des saveurs du Québec, Kem Coba and Diane Gauthier.

But all this would not have been possible without our focused brigade of Elves :  231 at the workshop!  As usual, the wrapping weekend unfolded with everyone in good spirits and brought together Elves from a number of environments and generations. Between families and groups of friends or colleagues, a great number of high school and cegep students cut paper and curled ribbon for this good cause. On the entertainment side, the chorus Les Triple croches offered us a moving performance on Sunday, a complement to our regular pianists René-Pierre Le Scouarnec and Yannick Provencher.

In the name of the thousands of people, young and old, who will be able to unwrap a lovingly wrapped package this Holiday season, we say a BIG THANK YOU to all who, by donating time or money, contributed to our 2011 campaign.

The campaign is not completely finished: we still have to deliver gifts to organizations in the Montreal area this December 24 morning. If you have a car and are interested, contact us!

« With the arrival of tritherapy in 1996, the situation has changed. Treatments that keep improving have kept death further and further at bay. Patients coming to Maison du Parc are not as sick. They don’t necessarily go there to die. Which doesn’t mean their lives are easy either. Social misery, extreme poverty, substance abuse, mental health problems, isolation issues… People infected with AIDS often bear all these problems.

Even with treatments that offer more and more hope, AIDS remains a chronic illness with very grave episodes. » (loosely translated)

What’s Left to Do and How You Can Help

With our last fundraising weekend at Jean-Talon Market with Santa Claus himself (view our album) our Elves are keeping their eyes on the prize. Indeed, we have only ten days left to raise $10,000 and finish procuring the 3,500 gifts before the Wrapping Weekend of December 10 & 11. We call on your generosity and hope that you will be able to make a donation.

You can donate online through our partner CanadaHelps.org. You will receive your tax receipt immediately in PDF format.

You can also mail in a check*, made out to The Little Elves Foundation, to :

The Little Elves Foundation
C.P. 121, Station Place d’Armes
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 3H8
*Tax receipts will be mailed out in February.

AIDS in Québec and Canada

Finally, in her article published yesterday in La Presse, Sophie Allard reminds us that

«(…) AIDS cases are as numerous in heterosexual society as in the gay community and, of the 18,000 people who live with HIV-AIDS [in Québec], one in four is not aware of his or her status. ‘It complicates things, because erroneous presumptions about our own statut and that of our partner constitute an area of vulnerability. Many think they are HIV-negative when they are in fact HIV-positive’, says Martin Blais. The decision to protect yourself or not is not taken in light of the actual risk factors.

‘HIV detection has to be optimized. It is still very taboo, says Dr Thomas. Kids are not talking about it enough. For them, it’s a disease of old people; for the older population, it’s a disease that affects the younger set. Sex education has to make a return in schools. The AIDS pandemic is shrinking around the World, but it is not the case in Canada. We can do better.’» (loosely translated)

Au kiosque

A good season at Jean-Talon Market

Weather conditions and availability of volunteers permitting, we have been able to open our kiosk 15 days since mid-September. Our loyal clients were glad to see their favourite sweet & spicy snack return and, thanks to a growing number of youthful elves, a great number of passersby got a chance to sample and buy them too.

Lutines à l'ouvrage

Over 600 kilos of nuts have already been sold to finance our 2011 campaign. There are only two weeks left to get nuts at JTM.

Meet Santa Claus!

November 26 & 27, make sure to visit the kiosk between 10:30 and 15:30 to meet Santa Claus! He will be there to supervise the Elves and if you have bought nuts, he will insist on having his picture taken with you, your children, even your dog! Thanks to Lozeau, you will be able to leave with a printed copy of the photograph.

Less than a month before the wrapping weekend, so much left to do

Even with all these efforts, we still need to raise over  $25,000 by December 10 in order to be able to accomplish our mission of distributing 4,000 gifts. Indeed, when you consider the average price of a gift (wrapping and shipping included) and that we currently have $12,500, we still have a ways to go.

You can help the Little Elves by coming over to the kiosk over the next two weekends or by making a donation online or by cheque.