Each issue Foundation Magazine provides a mini-profile of five people whose work and commitment make Canada a more liveable country. We thank them for their service.
Margaret Acreman founded the Single Parent Association of Newfoundland in September of 1987, based on her own experience as a single parent and her work in crisis intervention in the service community. She recognized that there were many gaps in available services and little awareness of the issues facing single parent families. Margaret undertook the daunting task of trying to provide both necessary ongoing supports for single parents and advocating on their behalf in the public sector. With a small group of dedicated volunteers, Margaret worked to make her vision a reality. SPAN was incorporated in October of 1989 and received charitable status in January 1991. As of 2022, there are on average 26,000 single parent families in the province. Pressures on the family unit are increasing in today’s world, and the single parent, as sole earner, with no partner to share these stresses, is under almost unbearable strain.
The Raincoast Education Society, based in Tofino, B.C., welcomed research intern Jen Willoughby thanks to the Direct Action Program through Ocean Wise. This program provides learning and professional mentorship with aquatic conservation efforts across Canada through 3-month internships with partner organizations. Willoughby gets to explore Clayoquot and Barkley Sound. Water, nature, and animals have always been a central part of her life. Since childhood she has always gravitated to spending time outdoors. These passions and a love for travel have brought her all over the world, including Thailand, South Africa, Indonesia and Costa Rica. She completed an Honours degree in Zoology from the University of Guelph. After graduating she began working as a zookeeper caring for exotic animals such as large parrots and also delivering educational programming to school groups and the general public.
Bryan Rose is Executive Director of the Niagara Community Foundation and is passionate about philanthropy, having fostered a deep and broad spectrum of experience during his 20+ years in the charitable sector. A life-long resident of Niagara, Rose has deep roots in the community, with a strong network of professional contacts and personal connections across the region and beyond. He is a skilled team leader who believes in building enduring, genuine relationships rooted in personal integrity and a shared spirit of philanthropy. His professional journey began at his alma mater, Ridley College, in a number of roles including Acting Director of Development and also spent two years as a Senior Development Officer (Major Gifts & Capital Campaign) with the Mohawk College Foundation. Bryan and his wife Andrea live in Beamsville with their daughter and son.
Based in Kingston, Ontario, Syvlio Roy is the most recent Distinguished Volunteer Pilot of the Year Award (2021) for Hope Air, Canada’s only national charity that provides free travel and accommodations for Canadians in financial need. The first flight was in 1986, and more than 162,000 travel arrangements have been made since. “I flew a young woman from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, to London, Ontario. It would have been a nine-and-a-half-hour drive one-way, but the flight was only two hours. We were about 30 minutes from landing when she quietly said, ‘I’m not sure if this ok, but I don’t want this flight to end. This has been the best day of my life.’ I helped her experience something other than her illness for a short time. This is why I volunteer,” said Roy. The Spirit of Hope Awards recognizes donors and volunteers who have made extraordinary contributions to the charity.
Well-known local Okanagan entrepreneur Lane Merrifield has once again made a contribution back into the Kelowna community. The Dragon Den star’s Merrifield Family Foundation donated $100,000 to the Our Students, Your Health campaign for a modern Health Sciences Centre on Okanagan College’s Kelowna campus. Merrifield is one of Canada’s leading tech entrepreneurs. He is the founder of Club Penguin, the largest children’s online social network. At age 28, he sold it to Disney for $350 million, and, as their youngest executive vice president, turned it into a billion-dollar brand. Merrifield, who was named an Okanagan College Honorary Fellow in 2012, the school’s highest honour, said he values OC’s focus on applied learning where students engage directly in hands-on skills to master their craft. The Merrifield Family Foundation and credited the gift as helping the OC Foundation hit its current milestone of $4.25 million raised from the community to complete the Health Sciences Centre.
Related Posts
