Community's living advent calendar rallies around 10-year-old undergoing chemotherapy

After a painful year for Amanda Moppett-Beatch and her family, neighbours in northwest Calgary are banding together to bring them some joy this December.

Residents of Varsity are using a holiday window decorating tradition to share words of encouragement with Amanda's 10-year-old son Easton, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in June.

The words "EASTON B STRONG" are painted, collaged and written on windows in the neighbourhood. 

"It's been a real hard journey so far, but you know, he's the smiliest of all of us and he's so strong every day," said Amanda Moppett-Beatch, adding the family spends a lot of time at home to protect Easton from getting sick. 

"For him to just now see each window and realize people are thinking of him and supporting him, it's just been a wonderful surprise that's been so uplifting in an otherwise pretty hard month."

Varsity's living advent calendars

Since 2020, some residents of Varsity have created a living window advent calendar to build community.

Each night in December leading up to Christmas, a different house unveils a cheerful holiday window display. People from the community are invited to walk by to see the designs. 

When organizer Verena Kuret learned the Beatch family, who've participated every year, were facing dark times, she decided to arrange something special. 

"I sent [an e-mail] out to the neighbourhood and within hours my inbox was just kind of filling up — boom, boom, boom, boom — with all of these e-mails from people saying, 'We're in.'"

"Since Dec. 1, we've been seeing window after window with a ... EASTON B STRONG message."

Kuret said the community's response made her emotional, and she's grateful to live in a place that rallies together. 

Moppett-Beatch kept the window campaign a secret from Easton until they visited the first house. 

"All of a sudden he's like, 'Does that say EASTON B STRONG?' And then, you know, I'm crying like, 'Yes it does, buddy. This is for you … so we gotta keep our strength up. We gotta make sure we're strong enough to come out to go out and find the next one.'"

The family has since visited a new window display nearly every night. Moppett-Beatch says it gives Easton something to look forward to.

"It's been so heartwarming … to know that everyone has made the effort to, you know, make a little boy smile," she said.

"I can't believe people are putting all this time and effort into it."

Moppett-Beatch said the two brain surgeries Easton underwent were successful, and he's responding well to chemotherapy treatment thus far. 

She said he's a huge Pokémon fan, and the family is creating small holiday gift bags with Pokémon cards for kids receiving care at the Alberta Children's Hospital who are worse off.