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Newsroom
Media Release
August 11, 2009
Variolo Estate leaves generous $500,000 bequest with unique twist: a matching gift challenge to support Trillium Health Centre
Lawrence and Judi Cohen with a photo of Ezio and Olga Variolo. Lawrence Cohen, executor of the Variolo family estate, remembers his father’s friends and their Italian heritage with fondness and pride. Photo Courtesy Trillium Health Centre Foundation.
The estate of Olga and Ezio Variolo, long-time residents of Etobicoke, has made a bequest worth a half million dollars to Trillium Health Centre Foundation. The executor of the estate, Lawrence Cohen, is challenging the community to support Trillium – every donation received will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the estate, up to $500,000.
Olga and her husband Ezio Variolo, both born in Italy in the early 1920s, immigrated to Toronto in 1965. They lived in Etobicoke for many years and were cared for at the Queensway General Hospital, now known as Trillium Health Centre - West Toronto.
“Ezio knew my father,” says Lawrence Cohen. “He and Olga were both hard workers and we always knew they loved Etobicoke. Olga was determined the family estate support a worthy, local cause and Trillium’s cardiac program was chosen.”
Lawrence and his wife Judi knew they could increase the impact of the estate gift by challenging the community to donate to Trillium.
“We want to leverage the bequest as much as we could on the Variolos’ behalf,” says Judi. “The fact that it is an estate gift matching donor dollars is new – it is something special to establish the Variolos’ legacy in the community that meant so much to them.”
Fred Ketchen, director of Equity Trading at ScotiaMcLeod Inc. and Lead Ambassador for the Trillium Legacy Society, commends such efforts to double the impact of a legacy gift. “I saw how powerful matching gifts could be in the Trillium Cardiac Challenge,” says Ketchen. “This is a wonderful way to encourage anyone considering making a gift of life insurance or securities to Trillium. They can do twice as much good while significantly reducing their taxes.”
“With the Variolo Estate’s generous contribution, we will be able to continue to equip our heart centre to meet increasing needs, particularly for our seniors,” said Dr. Thomas Rebane, Trillium’s chief of cardiology.
A legacy or planned gift to Trillium Health Centre can ensure quality health care remains available, right here in our community. On August 18 the Foundation hosts their Annual Legacy Society Reception and Tea for members and those considering a bequest to Trillium Health Centre. For information, please contact the Foundation at 905.848.7575 or visit www.trilliumgiving.ca.
About Trillium Health Centre
Trillium Health Centre is one of Canada’s largest academically-affiliated tertiary care hospitals with highly-specialized regional programs in advanced cardiac, vascular, stroke, neurosciences, orthopaedic, and sexual assault/domestic violence services. Housing a model ambulatory care centre and the largest free standing day surgery centre in North America, Trillium serves over one million residents in Peel and West Toronto and from other communities across Ontario. Last year Trillium’s doctors, staff and volunteers cared for more than 700,000 patients at the Mississauga (100 Queensway W.) and West Toronto (150 Sherway Dr.) locations. With the continued support of the Trillium Health Centre Foundation, the hospital’s fundraising arm, the two-site facility is attracting international attention for its innovative approach to providing safe, high quality health care services and has received numerous national awards for quality and innovation.
For more information, go to www.trilliumhealthcentre.org.
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A high-resolution version of this photo is available upon request.
Media Contact
Larry Roberts
Media Relations Consultant
Trillium Health Centre
office: 905.848.7580 ext. 3832
email: lroberts@thc.on.ca.