Gabe Hultink, 12, of Lacombe, was able to donate several backpacks filled with essential items for clients of Red Deer's Safe Harbour Society last week as part of a school assignment to give back to his community. (Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

The Christmas Spirit

Local homeless to benefit from Lacombe boy’s generosity

Dec 22, 2020 | 4:44 PM

A local 12-year-old boy has embraced the spirit of giving this holiday season in support of those less fortunate in our community.

Gabe Hultink, a Grade 7 student at École Lacombe Junior High School, brought a school assignment to life last month by conducting a bake sale and raising money so he could gather items for backpacks to be delivered to those dealing with homelessness.

He says helping people in-need has been a passion of his for a long time.

“We made cookies in exchange for donations and money to make the bags,” says Gabe. “We raised $638, which made 35 bags.”

Hultink says the backpacks were then filled with toques, mitts, socks, toiletries, food, gift cards, and water.

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“We started handing them out ourselves in downtown Red Deer. Then my uncle, he has connections at Safe Harbour, he connected us to bring the rest of the bags there. They said thank you very much and they were very grateful.

“It makes me feel good that I’m going to make a difference in people’s lives,” adds Gabe. “It helps me go out of my comfort zone and help others. Even small, little acts of kindness can go into bigger things.”

His mother, Deb Hultink, says she wasn’t surprised when he came to her with his idea to help the homeless.

“Gabe is always the first kid to help and to lend a hand, and he just has a really serving heart and has always been passionate about that,” she Hultink. “Gabe loves baking, especially peanut butter cookies. So I said, why don’t we put it out there and see if people would in exchange for having cookies, they could either donate items or give money to put backpacks together and we were obviously blown away with how much we did raise.”

Deb says Gabe’s original goal was to put 20 bags together before they ended up making 35.

“I’m just so proud of Gabe. He has a huge heart and he is one of the most compassionate people that I know and he just wants to help people where he can.”

“We certainly thank him and we thank everybody whose been shining their light into the Harbour for the past few months,” says Kath Hoffman, Executive Director at Safe Harbour Society. “Not just at this Christmas time, but also throughout the year. We’re very grateful to all of them. What they do helps so many.”

Dr. Michael Mulholland, Physician Lead for Safe Harbour Society’s medically supported detox program describes Gabe’s backpack initiative as inspirational.

“I work with this population a lot,” says Mulholland. “But he actually inspired me to ask what am I doing in addition to the work that I do with this community? So this is a great time of the year to think of people that are less fortunate than we are.”

What makes Gabe’s thoughtfulness even more impressive is that he carried out his charitable work while his 13-year-old brother Tyler continues to battle a brain tumor.

“We have a really long road ahead of us,” says Deb. “That’s where my brother-in-law stepped in and took Gabe to complete his project. We just got home yesterday from the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. My son had a nine-hour brain surgery and they weren’t able to get all the tumor and so we have a lot coming ahead of us to deal with. He’s at home recovering with us right now.”

If you would like to help the Hultink family with the costs associated with treating Tyler’s brain tumor, visit GoFundMe.com.