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Eight-year-old Victoria boy gives stockings to

people without homes
Katie Derosa
Dec 23, 2020 6:00 AM

Max Ash with his dog, Duke, and stockings he’s been handing out to people living in tents on Pandora Avenue. FAMILY PHOTO
After learning about activism in his Grade 3 class at Strawberry Vale Elementary, eight-year-old Max Ash told
his mother: “You can’t be an activist unless you take action.”

Max clearly takes his own advice to heart: He recently spent two days delivering stockings to more than a dozen
people living in tents on Pandora Avenue.

“I’m so proud of him,” said his mother, Carlyn Frenette. “He’s very aware that there are people who aren’t as
lucky as he is. He really wanted to do something that felt like he was helping.”

“I felt really good inside,” said Max of his holiday giving.

Frenette said she and her two children recently moved to James Bay, and during walks in Beacon Hill Park and
downtown, her children had questions about why people were living in tents.

Frenette explained that homelessness is a difficult problem facing many communities.

After his school lesson on activism, Max told his mom he wanted to be an activist. He decided his form of
activism would be helping people less fortunate than him.

He asked that money for one of his Christmas gifts be used to buy stockings filled with gloves, hats, socks,
Gatorade and Christmas cookies. “It’s wintertime and it’s fairly cold for the homeless,” Max said. “So I thought it
would be good to give them a stocking and a Merry Christmas.”

After the first five stockings, he wanted to do more, so Frenette suggested he start raising money. Max
approached his grandfather’s coffee group, who pitched in money that his grandfather matched. With another
$100 in his pocket, Max purchased items for another 10 stockings.

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Frenette, a teacher at Strawberry Vale Elementary, said Max was able to learn about his own privilege and the
fact that not everyone has the same comforts.

On Dec. 14 and 17, Frenette took Max and her four-year-old daughter, Lexi, all wearing masks and gloves, to
Pandora Avenue to hand out the stockings.

Prior to the outing, when Max called people without homes “homeless,” Frenette told him: “Yes they don’t have a
home but that’s not their name.” On Pandora Avenue, Max asked people their names and explained why he
wanted to help.

“One of the guys who was there said to Max: ‘We don’t want you to [end up] out here so be a good boy and
always listen to your mom, and keep making good choices. You’re a good kid,’ ” Frenette said.

Max met two sisters sharing a tent who said they would share one stocking between the two of them so
someone else could have one.

“Everyone was really receptive and thankful,” Frenette said. “It was a positive experience for everyone.”

Max left Pandora Avenue with a better understanding of mental-health issues and why some people take shelter
in parks and on the street, said his mother, noting the experience has taught her son that people without homes
are not to be feared and have a story like everyone else.

Max’s father, James Ash, said he’s not surprised by his son’s act of generosity. “He thinks about other people all
the time instead of himself,” he said. “My heart is full.”

kderosa@timescolonist.com