Chrissy McRoberts

There is no denying Chrissy McRoberts's kindness and giving nature. Anyone who knows the 51-year-old co-owner of Sarnia's Dog Eat Dog will attest to the fact Chrissy makes it her business to look after others. This attitude, Chrissy insists, is the direct result of one of the worst times in her life. "As a single mother of two, I came close to being homeless," Chrissy says. "And I will never forget that feeling or the people who helped me—people that I didn’t even know. You only need to be scared like that one time to think about how others helped you and how you can help others."

Dog Eat Dog is a store for gifts and furniture named after Chrissy's two bulldogs — Legend and Fable. The dogs greet customers at the front door. Chrissy has 40 artists who supply Dog Eat Dog with merchandise and the group is very charity-oriented. The three main charities Chrissy and her pals donate to are the Sarnia Humane Society, The Inn of the Good Shepherd, and the CCMF (Community Concerns for the Medically Fragile). In addition to selling tickets for just about any charitable event in Sarnia-Lambton, and working with organizations to highlight their needs, Chrissy initiated a pet project alongside the Mitton Village Citizen's Collective two years ago. They decided to approach a few local businesses in Mitton Village, where Dog Eat Dog is located, about donating boxes of macaroni and cheese to The Inn of the Good Shepherd. "We approached all the businesses in our area and asked that rather than paying for Christmas decorations to put in your store window, can we ask all of our customers to donate name brand or no-name mac and cheese and we can build a tree in place of a regular tree." On the last regular business day before Christmas, The Inn comes by and picks it up so they are all stocked for the holiday. "We started having donations brought in this year on Nov. 12. It was fantastic. Out of all the businesses, there were two of us that really egged each other on so all together between the two businesses we had 3,010 boxes of Kraft Dinner. That is 500 boxes more each than we had last year."