Youth Treatment Facility Needs Decorations For Christmas

COVID-19 means youth at the Portage Atlantic treatment facility in Cassidy Lake will be staying over the holidays.

In a normal year, the youth can go home on a 72-hour pass between December 24th and 27th.

Portage Atlantic director Tambrie Hicks said because so many areas are in the orange phase and with rising case numbers in other provinces, the head office thought a change was needed this year.

Portage also operates facilities in Ontario and Quebec.

“The decision was made to have all the residents at all Portage facilities stay in their particular residence over the Christmas season,” Hicks said.

Due to this significant change, three buildings at Portage Atlantic need to be decorated for Christmas.

Hicks said she and the facility’s ‘Christmas Elf’, Tera Barrett, put out appeals on social media.

“We just really want to make it as special for the kids as we possibly can. It just really took [on] a life of its own especially Tera’s post has been shared well over 200 times,” Hicks said.

Barrett said they have collected donations from all over the region including outside decor from the Cherry Brook Zoo in Saint John.

“We’ve got people who have donated 10-foot fresh Christmas trees with the stand, artificial trees, candles for the windows. Lights. I’ve had people call just to donate a little bit of money saying ‘put this towards the kid’s stockings,'” Barrett said.

Offers to contribute have come from all over the region including the Kennebecasis Valley, the Sussex region, Saint John and Moncton.

Up to 18 youth will be staying at Portage over the holidays this year.

Staff are always on-site on Christmas day but there will be more on hand this year and the plan according to Hicks is to make Christmas week special for the youth staying this year.

If you would like to help, call (506) 839-1200 or email Terra Barrett at tcook@portage.ca