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GoFundMe campagin set up to support 8-year-old hero and mother

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help assist a mother and her hero daughter who are currently dealing with extreme living conditions.
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The back end of a van that was a part of three vehicles that ended up burned at the Matonabee South apartment building. Photo courtesy of Donna Lynn Baskin.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help assist a mother and her hero daughter who are currently dealing with extreme living conditions.

“We’ve been waiting three years,” said Farren Beaulieu, mother of the two. “So we’re really at our maximum capacity for patience and virtue. Like I’m really focusing on my virtues lately, because because I’m so filled with anxiety, and loss of hope.”

“I don’t know where to turn,” she continued. “I’ve gone everywhere, and it’s like, I’m doing circles.”

“And I heard there’s no housing. That’s what all the housing corporations are telling me. I’ve been couchsurfing. And I even lived on the land.”

The campaign, put together by Yellowknife citizen Donna Lynn Baskin, wouldn’t come to fruition until after a multi-car fire in the downtown area of the city at the Matonabee South apartment building.

“In the wee hours of the morning of Aug. 7,” reads Baskin’s description of the incident on her GoFundMe page. “I and my neighbors … awakened to fire and police responders in our parking lot dealing with vehicles that had been set on fire.

“One of the vehicles was mine and when the police informed me and brought me outside they also told me that the quick response of emergency services was due to the quick thinking of a young lady who lives in the building who heard the sound of the fire before anyone else and acted quickly to call 911,” it continues.

The young lady in question is Grace-Ellen Beaulieu, who is 8 years of age.

‘Knifers across social media have been calling Grace a hero for making a necessary call to help in alerting the authorities

“Although the site and sound of the fire terrified her, she kept her wits about her and knew exactly what to do,” reads Baskin’s description. “And because of her quick thinking the emergency responders were able to get there before the fire ignited the gas tanks of the vehicles. Without her quick thinking our building most certainly would have been engulfed and people most certainly would have been injured or possibly killed.”

No one was injured in a fire that damaged three vehicles, according to the City of Yellowknife Fire Division (YKFD). As well, based on the official response, the YKFD responded to the fire shortly after 4 a.m.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, or if any charges would be laid in connection with the incident.

“This young woman proves that civic duty knows no age boundaries and that being a person of good courage and character is timeless,” continues Baskin’s description. “She is also an excellent reflection of her wonderful mom who is also been a tremendous asset to our neighborhood.”

However, following the heroics of Grace, Baskin would go on to learn that both Grace and her mother Farren were dealing with issues in food and housing security.

“At the end of the month she will be leaving our apartment building and her mom showed me the tent that they have scrounged to live in once this apartment is no longer available to them.”

“It is inconceivable to me that this young mother and eight-year-old girl should be subjected to living in a tent and trying to manage finding sustenance and going to school while at the same time facing the vagaries of a northern fall and winter …”

It was after this that Baskin decided to start up a GoFundMe to do her part in the hopes of raising enough funds to obtain stable housing and “a a sense of peacefulness.”

“It is the very least I can do considering that they most certainly are the reason that I did not lose my home the other night and that I do have that sense of security.”

The GoFundMe campaign currently (at the time of writing) sits at over $2,000 out of a requested $10,000

“The cost of living in our city is outrageous as I have heard it is in many parts of Canada,” Baskin continues

“I asked all of you who are willing to please reach out and help with this GoFundMe fundraiser in order to provide a more hopeful outlook in the life of this young hero.“

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8-year-old Grace-Ellen Beaulieu helped to resolve multi-car fire that took place on Aug. 7 in the early morning hours. Afterwards, Beaulieu received acknowledgment from the City for her efforts. Photo courtesy of Donna Lynn Baskin.