Julie's 40th birthday life saver
Donation protected
Hello All -
Covid has made life difficult for a lot of us, but for some of us, it's been destructive beyond words. Julie Jolicoeur has been hit hard this year and we want to help her out.
Mid-December, after months of fighting for her rights as an ex-pat in France, Julie was contacted by the Canadian embassy in France and told that she should prepare to leave the country imminently. Despite being at high risk of severe Covid, she boarded a plane on December 22 for Canada, having no choice, and this after her apartment was broken into in France, she stopped receiving mail and deliveries. After fifteen years of living abroad and working with children for a minimal salary and hosting our beloved Lemon Tree House residencies, Julie deserved better but was forced to abandon all of her belongings and forced out of the place she called home. She wasn't even able to bring back her computer, phone or anything and has been living without any of these luxuries, waiting for a journalist friend to ship what is possible to be shipped back to Canada and filing police report after police report after being hacked. She has already survived a stint of homelessness post-quarantine in Toronto, due to her allergies and none of us being able to house her (pets) and local Covid restrictions making finding a home impossible, and even after two months of keeping on like a warrior, she still doesn't even have access to health care in Canada yet. We are doing what we can to help her out and keep her fed, as Julie doesn't have a loving family to lean on for support, like some of us do.
Julie spent the pandemic volunteering her time with kids around the world, raising money for families in need through a virtual museum program and being her usual generous self. Now that we have finally found her a pet-free place to live, we want to help Julie get back on her feet again and give her back a dose of the community feeling she has provided us all with over the years through her residencies, and show her what a loving community can do and restore her faith in humanity a little. We can do that!
This summer, Julie also quietly turned forty alone. Due to Covid, she was unable to celebrate her birthday friends and spent the day alone in her flat, depressed. Her morale has never been so low as now and she is in truly dire straits these days, after her entire life has been uprooted over the past year and today she needs our help. So we are holding a very late 40th birthday fundraiser for Julie, in the effort to keep her afloat through this painful & transitory time and to give her back what we can. Julie is still hoping to keep The Lemon Tree House alive - a program she started from absolutely nothing but pure love - one that we don't want to ruin her financially as a result of travel restrictions imposed by governments leading to further cancelations of 2021 programs on top of what has already been a destructive year for her financially speaking. Due to the international component, which is what made The Lemon Tree House so great for most of us, the program itself is obviously particularly touched by Covid restrictions. So this is our chance to show Julie she is loved - and believe me, she needs the reminder at the moment - and I know we can help transmute this difficult time into something beautiful, that's exactly what artists do.
Please contribute as much as you possibly can spare, and thank you in advance for your compassion and generosity! We know Julie will appreciate this gesture so much, as difficult as it is for her to ask for help and we're positive she will cry like a baby from all the love. And she needs really needs some love after the Hell she's been through.
Sincerely -
Anna Sapershteyn
The Lemon Tree House
Covid has made life difficult for a lot of us, but for some of us, it's been destructive beyond words. Julie Jolicoeur has been hit hard this year and we want to help her out.
Mid-December, after months of fighting for her rights as an ex-pat in France, Julie was contacted by the Canadian embassy in France and told that she should prepare to leave the country imminently. Despite being at high risk of severe Covid, she boarded a plane on December 22 for Canada, having no choice, and this after her apartment was broken into in France, she stopped receiving mail and deliveries. After fifteen years of living abroad and working with children for a minimal salary and hosting our beloved Lemon Tree House residencies, Julie deserved better but was forced to abandon all of her belongings and forced out of the place she called home. She wasn't even able to bring back her computer, phone or anything and has been living without any of these luxuries, waiting for a journalist friend to ship what is possible to be shipped back to Canada and filing police report after police report after being hacked. She has already survived a stint of homelessness post-quarantine in Toronto, due to her allergies and none of us being able to house her (pets) and local Covid restrictions making finding a home impossible, and even after two months of keeping on like a warrior, she still doesn't even have access to health care in Canada yet. We are doing what we can to help her out and keep her fed, as Julie doesn't have a loving family to lean on for support, like some of us do.
Julie spent the pandemic volunteering her time with kids around the world, raising money for families in need through a virtual museum program and being her usual generous self. Now that we have finally found her a pet-free place to live, we want to help Julie get back on her feet again and give her back a dose of the community feeling she has provided us all with over the years through her residencies, and show her what a loving community can do and restore her faith in humanity a little. We can do that!
This summer, Julie also quietly turned forty alone. Due to Covid, she was unable to celebrate her birthday friends and spent the day alone in her flat, depressed. Her morale has never been so low as now and she is in truly dire straits these days, after her entire life has been uprooted over the past year and today she needs our help. So we are holding a very late 40th birthday fundraiser for Julie, in the effort to keep her afloat through this painful & transitory time and to give her back what we can. Julie is still hoping to keep The Lemon Tree House alive - a program she started from absolutely nothing but pure love - one that we don't want to ruin her financially as a result of travel restrictions imposed by governments leading to further cancelations of 2021 programs on top of what has already been a destructive year for her financially speaking. Due to the international component, which is what made The Lemon Tree House so great for most of us, the program itself is obviously particularly touched by Covid restrictions. So this is our chance to show Julie she is loved - and believe me, she needs the reminder at the moment - and I know we can help transmute this difficult time into something beautiful, that's exactly what artists do.
Please contribute as much as you possibly can spare, and thank you in advance for your compassion and generosity! We know Julie will appreciate this gesture so much, as difficult as it is for her to ask for help and we're positive she will cry like a baby from all the love. And she needs really needs some love after the Hell she's been through.
Sincerely -
Anna Sapershteyn
The Lemon Tree House
Organizer
Anya Slapenshine
Organizer
Toronto, ON