AVC presents Green Hat Award
The Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) presented its 2015 Honourable Eugene F. Whelan Green Hat Award on Friday, October 2, to the trustees of the Christofor Foundation for their long-standing support of the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre at AVC.
This support goes back to 1994 when the Animal Welfare Unit was established at the College through the generosity of philanthropist Lady Beaverbrook. In 1993 Lady Beaverbrook expressed to the Atlantic Veterinary College her wish to help horses and dogs. That wish resulted in a grant of $125,000 from the Sir James Dunn Foundation to create the Animal Welfare Unit at AVC, now known as the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre (SJDAWC). Lady Beaverbrook died in late 1994, leaving the residue of her estate primarily for the benefit of domestic animals.
The SJDAWC has received consistent financial support and encouragement from the trustees of the Christofor Foundation (and the associated Sir James Dunn Foundation)—Michael and Cynthia Doyle, the late Dr. Tom Taylor, Esma Taylor, and Tom Taylor. In particular, the late Dr. Tom Taylor saw the value of creating and supporting a science-based centre dedicated to animal welfare.
Support from the Christofor and Sir James Dunn Foundations—totaling almost $5.9 million to June 2015—has provided secure funding that formed the basis of the Centre’s development. Since 1994, the Centre has met at least annually with the trustees and has presented proposals at intervals for renewed and expanded support.
The SJDAWC and AVC are grateful for the Christofor Foundation’s recent renewal of its support of the Centre with a commitment of $1.5 million over the next five years, including a new Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Graduate Scholarship fund at $75,000 per year.
During the presentation, Dr. Greg Keefe, dean of AVC, thanked the Christofor Foundation and its trustees for their generous ongoing support.
“Over the past 29 years, the Atlantic Veterinary College has exceeded all expectations with respect to its education, research, and service programs,” he says. “It is with the support of donors such as the Christofor Foundation that our college is truly an Atlantic Canadian success story.”
Over the past 21 years, through the SJDAWC, the Christofor and Sir James Dunn Foundations have supported 79 research projects that have practical implications to improve animal welfare, for a total commitment of $2.5 million, and 20 service projects with direct and immediate benefits to animals and teaching benefits for AVC students, totaling $1.4 million. This includes $1 million over ten years to establish a Chair in Animal Welfare at AVC, and support of AVC’s doctor of veterinary medicine students and graduate students through the Christofor Award in Animal Welfare and the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Graduate Scholarship fund. Twenty-nine graduate students have been supported partially or wholly by the foundations, and the research performed has resulted in at least 74 publications. The foundations have also supported the Centre’s student project fund, its annual Animal Welfare in Practice conference, and many other initiatives.
The presentation of the Green Hat Award followed UPEI’s 16th annual Recognition of Founders ceremony honouring the university’s five past-presidents, Dr. Ronald Baker, Dr. Peter Meincke. Dr. CWJ Eliot (posthumously), Dr. Elizabeth R. Epperly, and the Hon. Wade MacLauchlan, and the launch of its $50 million friend- and fundraising INSPIRE! CAMPAIGN.
