A grant to McMaster University’s Let’s Talk Science! partnership supported students from at four Hamilton elementary schools to care for and hatch Atlantic salmon eggs in their classrooms over the winter, and then to re-introduce the fish into the Lake Ontario watershed.  Once a keystone species, these fish were eradicated from the lake in the late 1800s.  This program enables children to learn about the vital role they can play in protecting the environment.

 

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Bill and Petra Cooke

For Bill and Petra Cooke, giving to HCF’s Community Fund was a way of making annual gifts that touch the local community. When Petra passed away in 2006, her love of community was remembered with the creation of the Petra Cooke Memorial Fund, a named fund in the Community Fund.

“You can see results of HCF’s work right here,” says Bill. “Everybody knows somebody who needs help and we get a lot of satisfaction knowing that people in our area are benefiting from the projects the Foundation supports.”

Bill and Petra arrived in Hamilton from England and Scotland (respectively) in 1964, met in Hamilton and stayed here. Bill retired from a 34-year career in the production department of The Hamilton Spectator and Petra, a nurse, was the transfusion coordinator for Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation. Active in many local organizations their three children and five grandchildren have also been firmly rooted in the Hamilton area.

In addition to being steady contributors to the Foundation’s Community Fund, the Cookes also helped build the HCF Ontario Endowment for Children and Youth in Recreation Fund and had the chance to meet with a few young grant recipients. “We were very impressed,” said Petra at the time. “It was a very worthwhile initiative and it really touched our hearts.”

When asked if they had a message for others in the community who might be thinking about directing their giving through Hamilton Community Foundation, Petra responded.  “I’d say it is focused on the local community, and the results are tangible. “It’s a very accountable organization – you know where the money goes, you’re kept up to date – and it’s well run. We’re very happy with the Foundation and we’ll continue to support it – no question” – a commitment Bill Cooke continues today through the Petra Cooke Memorial Fund.