Donor's legacy supports Gift of Freedom

Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Page F2

By Iona Green

Posted with permission from the Ottawa Citizen.

A grant from the Community Foundation of Ottawa has helped to fund a new book commemorating Project 4,000, a defining moment in Ottawa’s history that galvanized the entire community around aiding dispossessed Southeast Asian refugees in 1979 and ‘80.

 

Described as Ottawa’s Finest Hour, the story of the city’s part in taking in scores of “boat people” has finally been recounted in “Gift of Freedom, How Ottawa welcomed the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees”, by Brian Buckley. The first comprehensive account of that chapter in our history, the book was funded by a Foundation fund with close ties to the time, and to the people who found freedom in our community.

 

As a devoted employee of the YM-YWCA, Ann Louise Pearson had first-hand experience with the plights of Ottawa’s homeless and immigrant populations. For close to two decades, she managed the Y’s international development, housing and social services programs, and traveled to such areas as South America, Africa and Asia to support efforts in the field. Following the Vietnam War, Ann Louise was one of the many Ottawa residents to step forward and sponsor a Vietnamese family, with whom she maintained close ties until her death in 2002.

 

In planning her estate, Ann Louise enlisted the help of a lawyer to ensure that she would leave a legacy of contributing to the causes she held dear. It was her wish to provide ongoing funding to local organizations and projects that would support community housing and the integration of immigrants and refugees into the community. With this objective in mind, Ann Louise’s lawyer provided for a bequest in her will to the Community Foundation of Ottawa. 

 

Received in 2003, the bequest was used to set up a field-of-interest fund to support the causes dear to Ann Louise. Since that time, the fund has made grants to such organizations as the Ottawa Community Immigration Services Association (OCISO), Rwanda Social Services and Family Counselling, Sage Youth and the Somerset West Community Health Centre. Most recently, Ann Louise’s fund contributed to the publishing of “Gift of Freedom”, a lasting tribute to the many citizens of Ottawa who opened their hearts and homes to people in their time of need.

 

Ann Louise Pearson’s philosophy:

“The nurturing of the world’s human and natural resources is vital to our survival. Because women understand the difference between nurturing and managing we have a responsibility to contribute to our world’s future by becoming involved in finding solutions to injustices.”