The J T Clark Family Foundation partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association of New Brunswick (CMHA of NB) launching a new fundraising event in June 2021 “Ride Don’t Hide”.
Lori Wheeler, CMHA of NB’s Director of Communications, states “New Brunswickers are struggling with their mental health more than ever. Demand for mental health programs and services are at an all time high. We are staring down an echo pandemic of poor mental health”.
“But at the same time, mental health has never been as widely and as openly discussed. Where stigma used to keep people struggling in silence, we now see a growing openness and awareness around the importance of mental health. We know that one in five New Brunswickers will struggle with a mental health issue in any given year. But all five in five New Brunswickers – every single one of us – has mental health. And now, more than ever, its clear to all that we must protect, promote, and celebrate our mental health.”
The J T Clark Family Foundation issued a $30,000 matching challenge for the “Ride Don’t Hide” event in memory of friend and family member Tim Richardson.
During the month of June, New Brunswickers from all regions of the province participated in activities and raised $31,288.25 which exceeded the $30,000 goal set by CMHA of NB.
“The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation has reached its $12-million goal for the Clinic 1 expansion capital campaign.
Officials with the foundation announced a $1-million lead gift from the J.T. Clark Family Foundation on Tuesday.
“We’re feeling very excited and quite humbled, to be frank,” Jeff McAloon, president and CEO of the hospital foundation, said in a phone interview. John Clark, the founder of the J.T. Clark Family Foundation, reached out to McAloon in early January after receiving care at the ambulatory clinic.”
“This has been an absolute record for us and could not have been achieved without our amazing community donors, such as the J.T. Clark Family Foundation. They helped to encourage further donations in the beginning of the campaign, and generously donated $10,000 to our campaign total. With their matched funding offer and our work confirming early donations, the J.T. Clark Family Foundation has generously donated $10,000 to our campaign total. Talk about a springboard to a banner fundraising year when our community needs it the most!
Our organization is simply speechless when it comes to the generosity and heart of this community. We are so appreciative of your kindness this season – something to help bring holiday cheer to the end of an unpredictable year!”
Annual MOW Fundraising Campaign Goals & Actuals
2018 Goal: seeking info from MOW
2018 Actual: $14,496.00
2019 Goal: seeking info from MOW
2019 Actual: $26,280.32
2020 Goal: $20,000
2020 Actual: $68,998.38*
* This includes the $10,000 challenge donation from JTCFF. The 2020 goal of $20,000 was almost tripled with a total of $58,998.38. raised in donations from the individuals and businesses.
Did JTCFF Challenge Make A Difference?
A few quotes from Betty Daniels. (Ex. Dir.) regarding the role of JTCFF in success of MOW campaign:
Dec. 30th: I absolutely cannot believe this success, and I know JTCFF’s early effort on our behalf truly helped us reach this amazing point. It is beyond what I had even hoped for, and it is going to make such a huge difference to us as we head into the New Year.
Jan. 11th: This is unbelievable – includes mail in donations and online through Canada Helps. This total does not include the donation from the Clark Family Foundation. I’m speechless at the generosity, and again so grateful for truly helping us jump start this. It is so very helpful as we begin our budgeting process for the coming year.
Social Media Post in December: “Let’s start this Monday off with some AMAZING News! We have been absolutely blown away by our community support this Letter Campaign. To date, our campaign has brought in almost $44,000! This has been an absolute record for us and could not have been without our amazing community donors, such as the J.T. Clark Family Foundation. They helped to encourage further donations in the beginning of the campaign, and generously donated $10,000 to our campaign total. Our organization is simply speechless when it comes to the generosity and heart of this community. We are so appreciative of your kindness this season – something to help bring holiday cheer to the end of an unpredictable year!”
J.T. Clark Family Foundation is happy to have helped Explore Lorneville Inc. raise $27,000 for a restoration and conservation project in the Musquash Head area. We matched donations to a total of $12,500.
A global pandemic couldn’t stop 13,000 students in the Fredericton and Oromocto areas from safely supporting their community. Thirty schools with students aged 3-18 took part in the 2020 Terry Fox School Run. They had an exciting, big goal in front of them that would help to increase their positive impact on people facing cancer: if they could collectively raise $20,000, The JT Clark Family Foundation would contribute an additional $20,000.
We’re proud to announce that these amazing young people surpassed their goal and raised $23,336 in support of life-changing cancer research. Including the donation from The JT Clark Family Foundation, these students have raised an incredible $43,336!
During a challenging year, Terry’s Fox’s legacy of hope has helped to inspire people of all ages to do their best and support those in need.
Thank you to these outstanding young people and their communities for supporting Terry Fox’s dream of a world without cancer.
To learn more about The Terry Fox Foundation, please visit www.terryfox.org
Pictured below are students at Montgomery Street School in Fredericton. Students took part in a “Honk For Terry” campaign to raise awareness for their school’s involvement.
New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame executive director Jamie Wolverton watches a video clip of Canadian soccer great Christine Sinclair on the 12 foot by 7 foot screen in the new 50-seat Alden R. Clark Theatre inside the hall and museum in downtown Fredericton.
Photo: Bruce Hallihan/The Daily Gleaner
If you haven’t been to the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame lately, you’re in for a big surprise.
Although the hall and museum in-downtown Fredericton has lost “about 90 per cent” of foot traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic, executive director Jamie Wolverton says the downtime has been beneficial in another way.
The Building Inspiration legacy project, set up to coincide with the sports shrine’s 50th anniversary, is now complete.
“It’s fabulous to see it finished,” Wolverton said.
The centrepiece of the improvements is a SO-seat theatre and presentation space on the third floor to facilitate video screenings, seminars, presentations and special events.
“We’ve already got an event booked for the end of the month,” Wolverton said. “We’ll still have to have physical distancing in place, but it’s great to see things start to open up a bit. We’re anxious to start leveraging the space when we get back to whatever the new normal is.”
The Alden R. Clark Theatre, named after a hall of fame member, has nine TV screens mounted on the wall. Together, they can form one large, 12 foot by 7 foot screen.
“For the last piece of our fundraising campaign, we developed a seat sponsorship,” Wolverton said. “We reached out to honoured members and supporters and asked them to contribute $500 to sponsor one of the remaining 40 seats that weren’t spoken for.”
The J. T Clark Family Foundation matched each donation.
“So essentially they turned that into $1,000 per seat,” he said, “and we were able to raise an additional $40,000.”
The hallway next to the theatre has framed portraits of 18 of the 250 enshrined members.
The second floor features a ‘New Brunswick’s First” wall, with bilingual plaques recognizing achievements, and a display case nearby with artifacts of some men and women who are part of the ‘firsts’ accomplishments.
“Records change all the time, but the very first person to achieve something can’t be outdone,” Wolverton said.
A large display for the newest members of the sports hall has been moved to the main floor, next to the entrance.
The sports hall’s website has added a 3D virtual tour, “so you can feel like you’re walking through the building from home,” Wolverton said. “You can zoom in and read the writing on all the plaques, or zoom back out and see the layout like a dollhouse.”
By next summer, Wolverton hopes to “redo the virtual sports system, so we’ll have cutting-edge technology to keep the virtual sports enthusiasts even more engaged when they’re here.”
The 2020 hall of fame induction ceremony was postponed until 2021. It will be held April 24 at the Fredericton Convention Centre.
The latest inductees will be armwrestler Joyce King of Lower Hainesville, Miramichi basketball player and coach Pauline Lordon, UNB men’s hockey coach Gardiner MacDougall of New Maryland, golfer Kathy Meagher of Fredericton, paranordic skier and Shippagan native Louis Fortin and the Fredericton-based Wayne Tallon curling rink.
Sometimes a gift carries with it more than sixty years of love and music.
Such a gift is the new Wilma H. Clark Award(s), to be granted to Bachelor of Music Therapy students, thanks to the generosity of John T. Clark (’52 and DCL ’10) and his family via the J.T. Clark Family Foundation.
The story of the award began on the Labour Day weekend of 1953. Twenty-two-year-old John Clark was attending an end-of-season variety show put on by the summer staff of the Algonquin Hotel in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. On stage was an attractive young woman with a beautiful alto singing voice. John grabbed his friend Gordon Dimock (’53), who was also on staff, and said, “Gordon, you have to introduce me to that person!” The attractive young woman was Wilma Hilton. The following summer, John and Wilma were married.
Presented to J. T. Clark Family Foundation, June 2020
“The J.T. Clark Family Foundation and J.T. Clark Family Cardiac Endowment has brought improved care with advanced postdoctoral research at the New Brunswick Heart Centre since the wonderful donation in 2013. Research brings top-notch doctors to our province, and top-notch technology.”
We are so excited to announce that The J. T. Clark Family Foundation has answered the call in our time of need and has pledged $24,000 for our Student Hunger Program! This means that we will be able to feed hundreds of hungry students and families affected by COVID-19 and the school closures on a weekly basis! Thank you to the J.T. Clark Family Foundation for your incredible support and for helping us fulfill our mandate of feeding Fredericton’s hungry. The J.T. Clark Family Foundation would also like to encourage the Fredericton Community to join in the fight to feed hungry students and families in the coming months by making a donation.
In the Fall of 2019, twenty-three schools in Fredericton worked together to pursue Terry Fox’s dream of a world without cancer. Each of the schools registered to take part in the annual Terry Fox School Run and, thanks to the JT Clark Family Foundation, were given a special opportunity to double their impact on the condition that they share an ambitious goal. The challenge was simple – if the schools raised a collective total of $17,500, the Clark Foundation would match with $17,500. This goal was a significant increase in funds raised by the same schools in the previous year, but also represented one of Terry Fox’s defining traits – setting big goals and working hard to achieve them.
With the help of the Fredericton community, these 10,000 students, aged 3-18, achieved this ambitious goal and, including the challenge funds from The JT Clark Family Foundation, raised $40,180!!
These funds will enable The Terry Fox Foundation to fund life-changing cancer research, including the M4 (Multiple Myeloma Molecular Monitoring) Study lead by Dr. Tony Reiman at the University of New Brunswick.
Sometimes a gift carries with it more than sixty years of love and music.
