The Sir Wilfrid Laurier Foundation continues to promote and sustain educational, cultural, recreational, artistic, and athletic pr

Describing its founder, Steve Bletas, as "a true leader" whose creativity, determination and courage has contributed a great deal to the progress and successes enjoyed by the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Foundation, President François Ghali summed up the organization's work as a five-year adventure into "taking our community a tremendous leap forward".

Addressing a gathering of 500 at the Foundation's 2009 Lobster Tales fundraiser last week, Mr. Ghali proudly acknowledged that the not-for-profit organization was in step with the rest of the country in the support it was receiving from donors such as those in attendance. Statistics Canada reports that Canadians increased their contributions to charitable organizations to $10 million in 2007, from $8.9 billion in 2004, the year the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Foundation was created by Mr. Bletas and other community leaders.

The June 11 event - which included lobster dinner, professional entertainment and a lottery whose total prizes were valued at $61,000 - raised $54,100 for the Foundation.

To date, since 2004, the Foundation has raised $275,000 which it has used in various ways to fulfill its community mission and commitment to public education.

The Foundation's first contribution to public education in the community consisted in the distribution of 40 multimedia projectors and 40 Smartboards to the schools and centres of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB). It followed that up in 2008 with $50,000 towards surveillance camera systems in all Laurier Board high schools and centres, and distributed more than 40 citizenship bursaries to graduating students. In 2009, it carried on the citizenship bursary program and will contribute towards a state-of-the-art career exploration laboratory which was recently inaugurated by the SWLSB at its Pont-Viau Competency Development Centre.