DONOR Isadore Sharp
TITLE Founder and chairman, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts
GIFT $5 million to the Ontario College of Art and Design
It was 1980, and Terry Fox, in the midst of a quixotic fundraising journey that many weren’t taking seriously, was at a low point in his morale.
He was on the verge of quitting his Marathon of Hope, but Toronto’s Isadore Sharp, who had lost a son to cancer a few years earlier, wasn’t about to let that happen.
As founder of the burgeoning Four Seasons hotel chain, Sharp arranged that his company would donate $2 for every mile Fox ran. But more than that, he took out ads in newspapers and magazines, eventually inviting 999 other companies to join forces.With Sharp’s dedication, $10 million was raised for the cause.
The effect on the young activist was remarkable.
“He heard about it, and he called me,”recalls Sharp, who had put Fox up at several hotels across the country.“You could hear the emotion in his voice. He said that, if one person cared enough, that’s all he needed to keep going.”
When Fox’s disease eventually forced him to cut his run short, Sharp made him a promise: he would continue the dream through an annual fundraiser.A few months after Fox’s death, Sharp made good on his word.The first Terry Fox Run was held on Sept. 13, 1981. It has since raised well over $500 million for cancer research. Fox’s mother once said that there would be no Terry Fox Run if it weren’t for Isadore Sharp.
Since then, Sharp and his family have been crucial contributors to numerous charitable causes.
In 2001, OCAD announced a gift from Sharp and his wife, Rosalie, of $5 million to help build the Sharp Centre for Design. More recently, a personal gift of $5 million from Sharp and his wife effectively completed the campaign to build the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
His role in supporting the opera house was more far-reaching than that single gift, though.
In 2002, he led a campaign that raised $20 million for the venue.
“It’s not something you automatically do when you become wealthy,”he says of the act of giving. “It’s about sharing with other people what you have,whether you’re in good fortune or not.”
