All in Elgin County
Our team at young & free press is thrilled to help announce a new donation of $15,000 to the Elgin County Railway Museum to introduce cycling tours to St. Thomas! With the funds, staff members will purchase a fleet of new bikes, including two e-bikes, and coordinate guided tours that feature the rolling stock gallery at the Museum, the collection of large-scale murals in the city, and the St. Thomas Elevated Park.
With increasing numbers of newcomers moving into the London, St. Thomas & Elgin County area – and lots of tourists visiting, too – there is the opportunity to consider how to make everyone feel welcome as quickly as possible. The STEAM Centre and Catfish Creek Conservation Authority have taken an interesting approach by introducing multilingual signs on local hiking trails.
In June 2020, the Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation announced that The Estate of Donna Bushell had contributed $100,000 to establish the new ‘Evans Trees Fund’, one part of a series of donations designed to strengthen and invigorate the community. Now, local charitable organizations (including schools) are invited to apply to the fund to support tree-planting initiatives.
Our team at young & free press has worked in collaboration with the Aylmer-Malahide Museum & Archives over the past year to develop some beautiful enhancements for the community.
Our team at young & free press is thrilled to announce a new collaboration with the Thames Valley District School Board. From January to June 2021, we will be designing unique, challenging, and memorable learning experiences that will engage elementary and secondary school students directly in real-life projects. The pandemic is limiting how much students can connect right now with local businesses and organizations. We view this as an opportunity to try a new approach that puts students front and centre!
The Estate of Donna Bushell has provided $50,000 toward the purchase of a new ‘Mobile Canteen’ for the Salvation Army. Serving St. Thomas and Elgin County, the specially-equipped vehicle will provide support to first responders during emergencies and disasters, as well as outreach for homeless and marginalized individuals. The expectation is that the vehicle will arrive and be in-use by spring 2021.
The Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell has donated $130,000 to the Aylmer-Malahide Museum & Archives to fund a new ‘Digital Archivist’ position at the Museum, support the purchase of new technologies, boost the use of the ‘On This Spot’ app in the community, install a new large-scale mural in downtown Aylmer, and contribute toward the ‘Museum Relocation Fund’ to strengthen the long-term goal of establishing a new site for the Museum locally. This significant donation will help the Museum to connect with community members, visitors and students, and add new dimensions to the unique cultural atmosphere in Aylmer and Malahide.
Walking around London and St. Thomas, homelessness is obvious. In London, there are many people living and sleeping rough along Dundas Street downtown and in Old East Village, or in tents by railway tracks and elsewhere. Business owners and residents in St. Thomas have noticed more people congregating and sleeping downtown, particularly around the post office, next door to where the City set up a drop-in centre for the homeless or near-homeless. The issue has been made worse by the pandemic, and this winter is going to prove challenging.
The Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell has donated $30,000 to The Rotary Club of St. Thomas Foundation, which includes $20,000 to establish new awards for the Rotary Music Festival. Additionally, $10,000 has been provided to establish a ‘Music Student Fund’ to allow the Rotary Music Festival to support participating students who may require assistance to compete at the Festival or in higher competitions.
Our team at young & free press is very pleased to announce that the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell has donated $50,000 to the Old St. Thomas Church Restoration & Maintenance Trust to assist with the ongoing preservation of the building and grounds at 55 Walnut Street. Part of the contribution focusses on planting trees now and in the future to ensure the stability of the slope behind the Church along the Kettle Creek valley.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed in a heightened way the essential role of government. Who do we turn to for leadership when there is a crisis? For teenagers, this may have been the first time that we had to think of this through a real-life lens.
Our team at young & free press is happy to announce a donation of $425,000 to the Elgin County Museum from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell. This contribution will transform both how the Museum connects with the community and presents local history and culture.
Our team at young & free press is very excited to help introduce a new augmented reality app designed specifically to engage residents and visitors in London, St. Thomas and Port Stanley. Developed by EXAR Studios in London, the app – called ‘Engage’ – will guide users on unique adventures through each community with stops along the way to experience attractions just by looking through the camera of a smart phone. Murals will come to life, billboards and other cultural objects will move, and local history will become a stimulating visual reality!
Our team at young & free press is excited to announce that the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell is contributing $225,000 to the STEAM Centre in St. Thomas to introduce the new ‘STEAM Community Studio’ … this is a ground-breaking new program that focusses on experiential learning and civic engagement to foster collaboration between students and key community stakeholders including academics, teachers, and political, community and business leaders.
Our team at young & free press is thrilled to announce that funding has been provided to the Forest City Film Festival to offer three grants of $8,000 each to emerging filmmakers in southwestern Ontario! Filmmakers have the chance to make short documentaries about three projects supported by the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell in Elgin County & St. Thomas, including the construction of the new “Evans Sisters’ Stage” at Springwater Forest, the launch of the “Art, Trees & Trails” project by the St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre, and the development of the “Track to the Future” mural project through Railway City Tourism.
On Thursday, June 11th, our team at young & free press announced an extraordinary donation of $750,000 from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell to the City of St. Thomas. This contribution includes $500,000 to support the establishment of the new Westlake-Evans Civic Park downtown, as well as $250,000 to boost the ‘Track to the Future’ mural project that will be coordinated through Railway City Tourism. We are very excited to help St. Thomas take another step toward becoming a major street art destination in Ontario.
Andrew Gunn and Maddie King of young & free press are acting as consultants on the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell. On Wednesday, June 10, we announced a donation of $100,000 to enhance the St. Thomas Elevated Park, as well as $115,000 to support the launch of the new ‘Art, Trees & Trails’ project in collaboration with the St. Thomas Elgin Public Art Centre. Another $100,000 has been given to the Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation to establish the ‘Evans Tree Fund’, which will support tree-planting in the community for decades to come.
Our team at young & free press is very excited to announce that the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell is contributing $1.25M to the Elgin – St. Thomas Community Foundation to support a series of projects in the Elgin County and St. Thomas area. With $100,000, the Foundation will establish the ‘Evans Tree Fund’, which will be a permanent fund that supports tree-planting in the community. The rest of the funds will be allocated to launch a series of remarkable projects across Elgin County and St. Thomas. More announcements will follow soon.
Through a donation of $155,000 from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell, the Kettle Creek Conservation Authority will be creating the first ‘water trail’ in Elgin County by allowing enhanced public access to the Dalewood Reservoir and Kettle Creek and purchasing canoes and kayaks for community members and visitors to use.
On Tuesday, May 26th, Maddie and Andrew joined representatives of the Catfish Creek Conservation Authority and Steelway Building Systems to highlight a donation of $335,000 from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell to build the new “Evans Sisters’ Stage” at Springwater Forest in Elgin County.
