Fundraising is a Family Affair

“If you have enough, you have enough to give.” That advice from their parents has been a guiding principle for two charming sisters, Angelina Comeau and Lucia Mombourquette and their generosity extends to Yarmouth Hospital Foundation.

“Our mother and father were so generous,” Lucia says. “We just copied our parents.”

Angelina’s paintings fill the walls of her century home in Comeauville. At 89, she remains passionate and experimental about her art. Lucia, the younger sister at 85, is a prolific and proficient quilter who creates beautiful and complex patterned tops and does the quilting by hand with amazingly tiny and precise stitches. Both have contributed their work for auctions to support the foundation, and both support the foundation personally. When Lucia’s husband died 11 years ago, the family requested gifts in memory to the foundation and nearly $1,000 was contributed.

The sisters come from a long line of teachers, although Lucia is the exception. She was a stay-at-home mom with five kids, but her husband was the principal at the Salmon River School. Remarkably, all her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live between Meteghan River and Yarmouth and her daughter, son-in-law and their daughters have the DJ’s Corner Store and Cafe in Salmon River.

The family’s generous spirit has been handed down to the next generation. DJ’s Corner Store and Cafe features a shelving unit for donated books. Store patrons are welcome to drop off books and pick from what’s on the shelves — and leave a little something in a donation jar. So far, they’ve been collecting an average of $500 a year for the foundation.