Community chips in

NEW GLASGOW - With the help of the community, Helen MacNeil has raised enough money to buy a wheelchair-accessible van for her daughter, Felicia.
In a period of about three months, MacNeil and her supporters raised approximately $20,000, which she used to buy the new, 2007 Dodge Caravan that now sits in her driveway in New Glasgow.
After suffering a brain aneurysm last April, MacNeil said carrying Felicia's wheelchair in-and-out of her car had become a burden.
As a result, MacNeil, along with her family and friends, began fundraising to purchase the accessible van for the 11-year-old girl, who has cerebral palsy. They hosted benefit dances, and held yard sales, book sales and bottle drives. The more fundraising they did, word of their efforts spread. Before long, strangers were offering to help.
Students at Temperance and Acadia Street Schools used their spare change to help Felicia, eventually raising about $400. Two students at A.G. Baillie Memorial School, Carly Burrows and Allie MacLean, asked guests at their joint tenth birthday party to bring money for Felicia in lieu of gifts.
MacNeil said the support was overwhelming.
"I'd like to thank everybody who helped make this possible, all of those who donated and lent support," she said.
She also gave special mention to Colleen Kennedy, Bernadette MacNeil and Marion Gordon, who she said were tireless volunteers in their efforts to help Felicia. Gordon, whose mother has cerebral palsy, said she wanted to help MacNeil because she sympathized with her situation. "I knew what she was going through," Gordon said. Before she had the van, MacNeil says at times she and her daughter felt confined to their home. "It's a lot easier now," she said. "I can take her wherever she wants to go, to the mall or to the movies."