Eileen Ruebsam passed away in 2018 having never established a fund or even made a donation to London Community Foundation, but she was watching us keenly and felt strongly about what we do. Imagine our surprise then, when we found out that Eileen had left us over $1.9 million of unrestricted money towards our Community Fund in her will.
Read MoreWayne is a giving guy. He’s always been that way and still wants to be that way when he’s gone. Recently, Wayne took the decision to take his giving one step further by making a bequest to LCF in his will, maximizing the legacy he’ll be leaving.
Read MoreSamantha Joel and James Marchment are not your typical big-time philanthropists. They’re young and early in their careers, and their fund is relatively small. And they’re just fine with that. “It’s never too early to give back if you can. This is a great way to handle our giving,” explains Sam.
Read MoreAs a volunteer at the city art gallery, Judith had an opportunity to interact with art and artists as the London Regionalism movement led by Greg Curnoe and Jack Chambers gathered steam. Eventually that experience led to a job at the London Regional Art Gallery (LRAG) as director of public programmes, and then as chief curator.
Read MoreTatiana Zdyb’s childhood was far from typical. Tatiana was homeschooled with her brother and sister in Toronto by her parents, and due to a belief that women should not be educated, they refused to support her post-secondary studies.
Read MoreRon Dawson is a life-long Londoner, growing up on Richmond Street North across from the old Richmond Dairy during the Great Depression.
“It was a pretty tough time – lots of people suffered immensely during the Depression,” recalls Ron. “People would go up and down the street, begging for food, or work, or anything at all really. It wasn’t easy for most people, but luckily we managed to get by.”
Read MoreDr. Gordon Sellery grew up and went to school in Toronto, eventually studying medicine at the University of Toronto before traveling to England for post-graduate work. Upon his return to Canada, he spent a year with the Grenfell Medical Mission in northern Newfoundland and Labrador.
“I had a very interesting experience traveling the coastlines by dog team or a ski-equipped airplane looking after the medical needs of small fishing communities,” recalls Gord. “I worked with a lot of wonderful people up there who lived off the land, without much disposable income. I donated books and things like that to the local school to help out the community whenever I could.”
Read MoreMany children are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities such as dance, music lessons, or baseball. Unfortunately, due to the cost of these activities, this is not the reality for all Londoners.
For more than 25 years, employees of Toboggan Brewing Company, Fellini Koolini's and Joe Kool’s, with owner Mike Smith have been giving back to their community by creating opportunities for London’s underprivileged youth to participate in sports.
Read MoreThough not a happy note to start the year off, I wanted to share thoughts on what I assume most of you now know, that Richard M. Ivey (Dick to many) passed away on Dec. 28.
Read MoreTatiana Zdyb’s childhood was far from typical. Homeschooled with her brother and sister in Toronto by her Polish parents, it was only when she started her undergraduate studies at Western that she experienced proper schooling for the first time.
Read MoreFrom the bombast of international musical productions, to the subdued funk of smooth jazz, to the classrooms of Fanshawe College, Duncan Grant was a musician whose versatility and dedication was matched only by his strength of spirit. Passing away after losing his battle with pancreatic cancer, his legacy lives on through his music, his family, and the Duncan Grant Bursary Fund.
Read MoreIn 2015, Cara Schmidt was waiting in her car for the rain to subside while her son, Andrew, was playing soccer. When the rain stopped, she decided to go out and watch by the field, but quickly realized something was wrong.
“I noticed there was a kid down,” says Cara. “It was Andrew. All the kids started to get off the field and at that point I knew something terrible had happened.”
Read MoreThe tragedy of his daughter Julia’s sudden death devastated Murray Hunter, but a desire to heal and help others was born.
“First thing I did was call the Foundation,” says Murray, “I spoke to President & CEO, Martha Powell, and she suggested that the fund should have a narrow focus. I liked gardening, so I thought if I focused on that, I could start the healing process.”
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