St. Albert students pack holiday cheer for Remand Centre inmates

The halls of École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville were filled with candy, chatter, and the rustle of paper bags on Dec. 14 as students packed gifts for the incarcerated.

Clad in festive hats and sweaters, the youths plucked pens and chocolates from bins and placed them in paper bags decorated with Santas, Christmas trees, and messages of hope. They were systemic and enthusiastic, like elves in a workshop, smiling as they swiftly assembled each package and placed them in overflowing red tubs for delivery.

“OK, guys!” cried a young man, checking each bag as part of the quality assurance team. “Quality and efficiency!”

The students were among the hundreds of Greater St. Albert Catholic youths involved in the district’s annual Edmonton Remand Centre gift bag campaign. Now in its 24th year, the campaign sees students work with area faith leaders to assemble hand-decorated gift bags for inmates at the centre at Christmas time.

“This is the only Christmas present the inmates can receive,” said campaign co-founder and St. Albert retiree Jerry Moran. Inmates are otherwise not allowed to receive any packages from the public for security reasons.

Each one of the roughly 1,600 inmates in the remand centre will get one of these bags, Moran said. To some, it will be a reminder of the families they have left behind. To others, it will be a sign that someone cares.

“It’s a very emotional moment.”

From candies to campaign

Moran said the idea for the gift bags came up about 24 years ago when he was a chaplain at the remand centre. Back then, he and other volunteers, such as now-retired St. Albert teacher Laurel Lutes, had been giving inmates candy bars in brown paper bags as Christmas gifts.

One year, Lutes said Moran remarked the bags they were using were too plain. She suggested having students decorate them, and recruited students at École Father Jan to do so.

The bag campaign caught on and spread to other GSACRD schools, particularly ESSMY, which has served as the central assembly point for the bags for 21 years (save one year during the pandemic). Lutes said seniors at the Youville and Ironwood homes also joined in at one point, with one artistic senior producing bags of such beauty that the chaplains framed one of them to hang in the remand centre’s chapel.

“It just rippled into different age groups and different members of our community,” Lutes said.

ESSMY teacher Louise Shervey said this year’s bags each contain a pen, a bookmark, a diary, an address book, and three chocolate bars — all donations collected by the chaplains from across the Edmonton region. Students decorated the bags last month and filled all 1,600 of them Thursday at ESSMY. In doing so, the students learned the values of mercy and giving back.

Grade 9 student Summer Tyler has helped assemble gift bags at ESSMY for three years now. She said many students put a lot of effort into illustrating and filling these bags.

“It’s really nice to see (how students) want to help out and give people that light of hope when they are stuck in darkness,” she said.

Moran said volunteers will sing carols and distribute the bags at the remand centre on Dec. 19.

While he acknowledged that some might oppose the idea of giving prisoners gifts (parents can opt out of the campaign and have their bags sent to the Sacred Heart Parish in Edmonton), Moran emphasized that inmates at remand centres are awaiting trial and have yet to be convicted. Catholic teachings also call on people to care for prisoners and the poor.

“Even if they were convicted, they are human beings,” Moran said, and should have a chance to mark the holidays.

Questions on the gift bag campaign should go to GSACRD religious education consultant Colin Loiselle at 780-459-7711.