'Best Christmas gift ever': Kingsville gym members rally to help friend after house fire
Gerald Ladouceur had been a member of F45 when he lived in Kingsville
A Sarnia, Ont., man who lost his home in a fire at the start of December says he just got the best Christmas present ever after members of his former gym, F45 Kingsville, delivered a truckload of supplies to his new rental home.
Gerald Ladouceur says a friend from the gym drove 150 kilometres to drop off the gifts, which included a bed, a sofa, clothes, linens, dishes, a toaster, a turkey and gifts for Ladouceur's kids and grandchildren.
"It's a bountiful Christmas," Ladouceur said.
"I was expecting a bed maybe and some sheets and stuff. But then, Nicole pulled up, and I looked out, and she's got this big Chevy truck, and it was just loaded."
The home on Ross Avenue that Ladouceur shared with his son went up in flames on the afternoon of Dec. 1.
The fire appears to have started after someone improperly discarded a cigarette butt or similar material outside the house, according to Sarnia Fire Chief Jeff Weber.
"I wasn't home," Ladouceur said.
"I was just pulling up as the fire trucks were. So yeah. It was shocking"
The Red Cross reached out to Ladouceur and helped him out for the first three days afterwards, and a realtor friend found him an AirBnB, he said.
Another realtor friend found him a rental home, which he's just settling into now.
But while the belongings he lost in the fire were replaceable, he said, they had yet to be replaced.
"We didn't even have a towel or a fork or a pillow," he said.
Ladouceur had just moved back to Sarnia 18 months prior to the fire, in part for work and in part to be closer to his aging parents, he said.
He had previously moved to Kingsville in 2021 in part to be closer to his daughter.
Joining F45 helped him settle in in Kingsville, he said.
"I didn't know many people in the town and immediately met so many people, and yeah, it was like a family," he said.
"They always had events and stuff."
Ladouceur sent photos of the fire and his subsequent living arrangements to a friend from the gym, Nicole Spagnuolo, and she choked up when she saw them, she said.
"I had tears coming out of my eyes, and I was just like, 'OK something has to give; I've got to do something," she said.
"We are just one big family at F45, and if we can help somebody, we will."
Spagnuolo posted a message to the F45 WhatsApp group to solicit donations, said F45 owner Jacob Huggard, and other gym members were eager to help.
"Ger — if anybody was lucky enough to meet him, he's always happy, and he's always bringing a positive energy," he said.
"When he left Kingsville, he was pretty upset that he had to leave our gym. So leaving on such a good note, Ger's always welcome to be part of our family. And if somebody in our family needs help, we'll be right there to help them."
The F45 members are not the only ones who have reached out to help Ladouceur this holiday season; another friend has also set up a crowdfunding campaign for him.
Ladouceur said he has trouble putting into words how happy and grateful he is for his friends' help.
"I didn't know what to say. I'm kind of a humble guy," he said.
"I realized how many friends I have and how special they are."