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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Vera M. Elwin Fund

Vera Elwin, born at the turn of the century in Dymock - a tiny agricultural village in England - was in her early teens when she emigrated to Canada with her parents. Her father, an insurance agent, settled the family in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Although she contracted polio as a child, she was a tall, slender, health -conscious woman who lived to the age of 95.

When she married for the first time at age 65, Mrs. Elwin had already supported herself for years working as a secretary, first in Montreal and later in the U.S. Her husband, George Elwin, had been vice-president of finance at Stelco and sat on the first Board of Directors of Hamilton Community Foundation. A sister-in-law, Jean Bendall of Ottawa, describes Mrs. Elwin as self-sufficient, clever and extremely loyal to her family. Mrs. Elwin had a lively interest in current and community affairs and indulged a whimsy for astrology. She kept her own apartment on the mountain and drove her deep green Mercedes Benz until 18 months before her death.

Many individuals and organizations were remembered in her will including the Foundation.

Excerpt from 1995-1996 Annual Report