When Nursing Undergraduate Society (NUS) Equity Commissioner Melanie Xie brought the idea of participating in the Projet Sapin des F锚tes to the NUS executive, she found a willing partner in second-year nursing student Olivia Harb, who reached out to the NUS with similar intentions.
The project involved setting up a Christmas tree in the lobby of 680 Sherbrooke St. West, filled with tags containing the name of a child under the care of the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ) and his or her gift request. Donors were instructed to remove a tag, purchase the gift in question, and place the gift with tag attached under the tree. Olivia helped put up the Christmas tree, and was present during the gift pick-ups, tallying the total amount of donations. As the collection of gifts grew, an empty space on the 19th floor of the Ingram School of Nursing was repurposed for storage. On December 12, 2025, members of the NUS executive loaded the gifts onto a truck and brought them to the DPJ for distribution.
Ever since Melanie found out about this project and its impact on youth living through hard times, she wanted to do something similar at the Ingram School of Nursing. 鈥淒uring my commute to school, I read the news each morning and saw stories and statistics about children in our system living realities so far removed from my own. It struck me how much of a privilege it is to have what we have, to experience family, stability, and comfort in our day-to-day lives, and even more so during the holidays. It reminded me of the importance of sharing that privilege with heart and compassion.鈥�
In a note of thanks to the Ingram School of Nursing鈥檚 faculty and staff, Melanie expressed gratitude for the heartwarming response to this project, - an example of the power of what she calls the collective good. 鈥淚 was deeply moved by the scale of how many people showed up for the cause. Seeing not just our nursing community but everyone at the 680 Sherbrooke building come together like this means more than words could describe.鈥�