First Durham Insurance & Financial Ltd. has launched its new Possibilities Grant, a $25,000 donation to help families celebrate the stories of young people who have raised awareness of children with disabilities.
Each year, over the course of the next five years, First Durham will donate $5,000 to a family with a disabled child under the age of 18 through a contribution to an RESP or RDSP. Dependant on household income, $5,000 contributed to an RDSP can generate up to $20,000 in savings after government grants are applied.
“For families who have a child with special needs, the short-term costs related to managing a child’s disability often limit their ability to invest in RESPs or RDSPs,” said First Durham vice president Bryan Yetman. “From time to time, in the face of incredible adversity, kids can do amazing things that demonstrate their full unbridled potential. Their stories inspire us.”
The grant will be awarded at the Grandview Children’s Centre in Oshawa on Oct. 15. Grandview has served Durham Region’s children with disabilities Durham Region for 60 years and is the only children’s treatment centre in the Region. Their current facility was built in 1983 and designed to serve 400 children, but in 2013, they serve over 5,500.
Due to a lack of government funding and space, more than 1,500 children are currently on a waitlist and can wait up to one year for treatment. Yetman said he set his sights on helping Grandview in his community because he was inspired by the brokers he met during his previous term as president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (
IBAO).
“A lot of them were older than I was, so they had resumes that included of a lot of community work,” Yetman told Insurance Business. “But I’ve always had, well before being involved with the IBAO, an affinity to kids with disabilities – especially when these stories relate to kid with disabilities that overcome a tremendous amount of adversity to succeed. Everyone likes that story. It’s told 100 different ways, but every time it’s captivating.”
After Yetman finished his executive term at the IBAO, he channeled his energies into raising the community profile of Grandview. Along the way, he heard some inspiring tales of his own about children with disabilities overcoming a “stiff wind in their face.”
“The inspiration for this [Possibilities Grant] is the stories I’ve come to learn at Grandview,” he said.
“There was a young man who ran a marathon. He was seven years old. He ran 5K in the Scotiabank Marathon. He had cerebral palsy and was told he’d never walk. He did it all by himself with a walker, and refused help, despite the fact that for the last 100 yards he didn’t think he was going to make it.
“What motivated him to do that? It wasn’t money, it wasn’t fame – he just wanted to do it.”
The donation is a way to celebrate these stories, said Yetman. And it’s a way to raise awareness about Grandview’s role in making them possible.
Nominations for recipients of the Possibilities Grant can be made by completing an application form available for download on First Durham’s Website, www.firstdurham.com.
Nominations will be accepted through to September 15. They can be submitted on behalf of an individual that meets the following criteria:
• The nominee has been inspirational in their efforts to raise awareness of children with special needs;
• is under 18 years of age;
• resides in Durham Region; and
• has a disability or a sibling with a disability.
