Quebec woman wins home makeover, pays prize forward to people living with HIV/AIDS

Jolene Donatelli works for Amazon in the Montreal region and thought her prize for being a hometown hero was better spent on someone's life who could be truly impacted by it.

A Quebec woman is proving through her actions not only why she was nominated by a group of her peers as a hometown hero, but why she was the right choice.

Amazon employees in Greater Montreal were asked to nominate a coworker who stood out for their involvement in the community.

“We kind of gave like a general descriptor as to what our hometown hero was,” said Amazon spokesperson Andrew Gouveia, “but we kept it very vague in terms of what the person would be getting.”

One thing was clear, though — Jolene Donatelli’s name kept coming up.

Donatelli, a site manager, spent 10 years abroad working for organizations like Unicef and Save the Children before returning to Montreal, where she became involved in foster care programs.

“Jolene actually got quite a few nominations,” Gouveia said. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow! She sounds amazing. So let me reach out to her and just talk to her.’ And then that’s basically how it happened.”

As the hometown hero winner, Donatelli was gifted a home makeover by celebrity designer Camille Charland-Perez and Quebec singer-songwriter Coeur de Pirate.

“I felt that there was the kind of opportunity that could change somebody’s life completely,” Donatelli said, adding it led to some reflection on her part.