Making a Difference in the Community
The Village Foundation has raised money for both an endowment fund and special projects, and before amalgamation, grants from The Village of Rockcliffe Park augmented the donations of residents and friends. Residents are encouraged to make annual donations to the Foundation, and the proceeds of the Dining with the Ambassadors fundraiser are added to the endowment fund. There have been other fundraising events, including a tennis round-robin and a bridge party.
Four major gifts in the first couple of years were designated for signal community initiatives:
1. the Pavilion in the restored Jubilee Gardens, opened in October 2000
2. the Library’s science collection for children
3. tree planting on Village lands, carried out over a number of years
4. the protection of the MacKay Lake area as a conservation zone and wildlife sanctuary. In 2000, the Foundation paid for the Mackay Lake Management Plan, which established principles for the guidance of the new City of Ottawa administration.
The book project, Martha Edmond’s elegant, authoritative and very readable Rockcliffe Park: A History of the Village, was another early initiative of the Foundation and its sales continue to contribute to the Foundation's efforts.
A project in which the Foundation played an important role was the rebuilding of the Sports Field on the grounds of Rockcliffe Park Public School. All donations were made through the Foundation, which held and invested them, then paid them out to cover the expenses of the project, which was completed in the summer of 2001.
An endowment established in 2001 by Murray MacLean, the long-serving and last Clerk of the Village of Rockcliffe Park, is administered by the Foundation and pays for annual prizes for poetry writing by elementary students at each of the three schools located in the Village.
The Rockcliffe Park Residents Association (RPRA) came into being shortly before amalgamation in January 2001, with a mandate to provide and/or improve the following:
- communications, including the original newsletter which has become our indispensable Rockcliffe News, and the 2008 Welcome to Rockcliffe Park booklet;
- tree planting on the street verges and green spaces;
- protection of the natural environment;
- children’s sports and recreation;
- heritage and planning;
- special events, including the Christmas Tree Lighting and September Garden and Croquet Party, as well as the pilot season of the Speakers Program.
The Foundation contributed to the RPRA’s project to restore and relocate, to the Buchan Road entrance to Jubilee Gardens, the handsome and historic Birkenfels Gates. These gates, re-erected in 2008, originally graced the entrance to one of the first houses built in the Village of Rockcliffe Park, in 1864.
In all, over the years since the Village of Rockcliffe Park ceased to be an independent municipality, the Foundation has contributed to RPRA community enterprises over $132,000 from its revenues.
Currently, the Foundation is also assisting the “Rockcliffe Hosers” to build a Fieldhouse Fund, which one day will dramatically improve recreational facilities for our community.
The Village Foundation will entertain applications for assistance in community undertakings of all sorts that match its vision and objects and meet the guidelines of philanthropic activity.