Whats Up Magazine Huntsville Lake of Bays - What's Up Muskoka

Hospital receives $1.49 million donation
By Karen Wehrstein
The Huntsville District Memorial
Hospital Foundation has received its
largest single donation in its 25-year
history, in the form of a $1.49 million
bequest from the estate of Mary and
Campbell Fox.
As specified in the will, the money
will go towards the hospital’s diagnostic
imaging department, which is currently
undergoing a $10-million renovation
and re-equipping to digitize and
otherwise update its equipment, says
foundation executive director Debi
Davis. A new CT machine is one of the
planned purchases.
“For SickKids or Royal Victoria
Hospital, $1.49 million would be big
news in their world,” Davis says. “So
it’s astonishing news in our world. It’s
a really, really big deal.”
The highest donation previously
had been $300,000 from the hospital’s
auxiliary. Received on Dec. 18, the
bequest was announced publicly on
Jan. 25 by foundation board chair
Rob Payne.
The gift did not come as a surprise,
since Campbell Fox and his wife Mary
had been frequent and generous
donors to the hospital since 1989,
appreciative of the care they both had
received from the hospital’s doctors
and nurses. Seven years ago, Campbell
Fox indicated his intention to leave
the majority of his estate, with a value
he estimated at the time was $1
million, to the hospital.
According to a foundation press
release, Fox rejected the suggestion
that he donate while he and his wife
were still alive to see the benefits.
Instead, he wanted the fund to grow.
The Foxes lived for many years
on Walker’s Lake, near Huntsville.
Mary Fox passed away two years ago,
and her husband followed her about
a year ago, at the age of 93. Delivery
of the funds, which were in the form
of shares in companies traded on the
Toronto Stock Exchange, was handled
By Karen Wehrstein
Planning continues apace for Film
North, the international film festival
coming to Huntsville from Sept.
26-28, 2010.
A satellite event, an outdoor screening
in Rivermill Park, has now been
set for Aug. 1 of the Sunday of the
Civic Holiday Weekend.
Deciding that late September wouldn’t
have warm enough weather for evening
outdoor viewing, festival founder and
chairperson Lucy Molnar Wing
approached the Town of Huntsville,
which suggested the new date.
“The Festival of the Arts is having a
Cheryl Perry, executive assistant of the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital Foundation, and chair Rob Payne
are looking forward to updating the hospital’s diagnostic imaging equipment, thanks to a $1.49 million bequest.
by Huntsville attorney David Currie,
whom Fox named as executor.
The hospital borrowed the $10 mil-
lion to upgrade the imaging department
so as to keep up with advances
in technology, says Davis, noting that
when the hospital’s radiologist left to
work in the private sector, candidates
for the job said that they were used to
“For SickKids or Royal Victoria
Hospital, $1.49 million would
be big news. So it’s astonishing
news in our world”
jazz fest on Saturday night, so the park
will have the stage and stadium seating
already set up and wired for
sound,” she says. “It’s a complete coup
for us, because we are offering it free
for the community.”
The evening will probably start
with a private dinner for sponsors and
then a cocktail reception for a larger
group at the Algonquin Theatre. Then
the crowd will proceed to the park for
screenings.
“We’ll probably start with a familyoriented
film, with partially Canadian
content, and then probably two more
screenings, one in keeping with our
digital equipment. The foundation
has been paying down about
$750,000 per year, she says.
environmental theme, and then maybe
a horror movie,” Wing projects.
Meanwhile, organizers of the Brian
Schaal Memorial Golf Tournament,
which is in its eleventh year and will
take place on July 26 at Deerhurst
Resort’s Lakeside course, has committed
to donating part of its 2010 proceeds
to Film North.
“We’re excited about that,” says
Wing. “It’s great to have the support.”
The theme for September’s
three-day festival is The Environment:
One Word, One World. Wing hopes
to make the special category for Best
Film with an Environmental Theme,
Davis emphasizes that others
shouldn’t be deterred from donating
because they feel their contribution
isn’t adequate. Every donation makes a
difference, big or small.
“Some people are going to feel
overwhelmed, and think, ‘I could never
do that.’ But it’s the small donations
that keep us going, the $25 or $50 or
$100. We have over 4,000 people who
consistently make donations to our
organization every year,” Davis says.
“We have people who come in with
their jars of pennies, and we cherish
every gift that comes through the door.
People shouldn’t feel that they can’t
help, because every penny does count.”
Film North sets date for outdoor screening
a permanent category. Other categories
include Best Feature-Length Film, Best
Short Film, Best Feature-Length Documentary,
Best Emerging Canadian Filmmaker,
and the G8 Film Alliance Award
for Best International Film.
Wing notes the festival has received 35
submissions to date.
“They’re across the board,” she
says. “All genres, and a mixture of
international and Canadian emerging
filmmakers.”
The festival will announce its jury in
the next month or two, and has plans for
a dinner-dance fundraiser at a cottage on
Lake of Bays in the summer.
www.whatsupmuskoka.com February 2010 13
Photograph: Heather Douglas