HELPING CHANGE THE LIVES OF CHILDREN

One in five children in eastern Ontario and west Quebec live in poverty and in some neighbourhoods, one in three. Poverty creates barriers that can deprive a child of the opportunity to shine and thrive. Your support to the Max Keeping Foundation helps to remove these barriers.

The Max Keeping Foundation assists disadvantaged children and their families in the region whose health, emotional, physical and emergency needs for assistance do not meet the criteria for support from other operating charities in our area.

These are a few examples of how the Foundation has provided assistance:

The Max Keeping Foundation Mission:

To assist financially disadvantaged children and families to meet emotional, physical, mental and emergency needs

• More than 100 children went to camp with the support of the Max Keeping Foundation and your generosity. A number of them attended specialized camps for kids with physical and emotional disabilities.
• We provided funding to over 100 disadvantaged children to participate in sports and recreational activities, like hockey, football, soccer, dance, swimming, gymnastics, and martial arts.
• The Foundation also provided funding to disabled children for specialized bicycles and learning toys.
• Your contributions to the MKF also funded bursaries to students at St. Mary's Home, the Youville Centre, the Children's Aid Society, and St. Benedict's School in Sudbury (in honour of a former CHEO patient).
• In partnership with the Ottawa Senators Foundation and the Ottawa Citizen, we funded scholarships for youth-in-care to the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, and (in 2010) Algonquin College.

"Today's donors want to see results," says Max Keeping, "and this small charity shows the dramatic difference that can be made in the lives of children if you level the playing field for them. No child should be denied the opportunity to play and participate because of economic circumstances."

Since its inception 16 years ago, the Max Keeping Foundation has distributed more than one million dollars to thousands of children. "Parents often come up to me to say thanks for helping their kids play sports. Many are working poor - and a $500 plus registration for hockey, for example, is beyond their capacity to pay."