‘Eases the pain’: Edmonton family serving most vulnerable for Christmas after homeless son dies
Posted December 8, 2025 10:11 pm.
2025 is a year Sherri Stace and her family won’t be looking back on fondly. Her son Ceileb died while homeless and battling addiction inside a Hope Mission shelter in April
“Ceileb was a bright young man. He was active in air cadets, he was on the Strathcona Youth Council, a theatre student, and loved to longboard,” said Stace.
But her grief led her to a promise to use her voice to help others.
On Monday afternoon, she put on an apron and a hairnet and brought her daughter and mother to help serve Christmas dinners to hundreds of Edmonton’s most vulnerable.
She says it’s giving a little bit of humanity for some that might not get that on the street.
“For me to be here and wish somebody a Merry Christmas and give them a warm meal, it fills my heart. It makes me a little closer to Ceileb and eases a little bit of the pain,” said Stace.
It takes dozens of volunteers to cook and dish out hearty meals to the homeless community, some with similar stories.
“We have a lot of donors, a lot of volunteers who have a story where they have connections to someone who’s struggled in some way. Those stories are far more common in our city than what you think,” said Kevin Wiebe, the donor relations manager at Hope Mission.
The work Stace has been doing is not just volunteer hours. After her son’s death, Sherri and the company she works for, Sterling Homes Edmonton, fundraised $40,000 to buy a LifePak monitor/defibrillator in Ceileb’s memory.
Christmas and other holidays will feel darker for the Stace family with Ceileb gone, but she hopes to bring light to someone in the same position as her son with a different outcome.
“Reach out to the people that are there to support them because they’re not alone,” said Stace.
