For more than forty years George Waters made history at Fort York, first as a uniformed interpreter, for some time as curator, and not least as deputy director of the Toronto Historical Board which once administered the fort. His involvement as a volunteer with The Friends was long-standing, productive, and meaningful. When he died last December, George did not forget Fort York, but instead bequeathed $50,000 to the Fort York Foundation. The Friends have recommended to the City that the library in the new building be named in his honour. The Fort York Foundation is leading the Fort York Invigorated Campaign to raise funds to help the City of Toronto open at Fort York the first Class-1 museum facility at any of the City’s museums. This state-of-the-art building will finally allow remarkable artifacts from City of Toronto collections to be displayed and interpreted in a secure setting. The Visitor Centre will also enable City of Toronto Museum Services to borrow material from anywhere to help us tell the story of Fort York, the place where urban Toronto was founded in 1793.

Near the end of 2013 the Fort York Foundation received three particularly meaningful gifts towards the building of the Visitor Centre. One came from Mrs. Marianne Girling; another from her daughter and son-in-law, Karen Girling and Bruce MacLellan; and a third from the Upper Canada Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Marianne Girling who gave securities valued at well into the five-figure range is a great-great granddaughter of Capt. John Denison. Her link to Canada and Toronto dates from the eighteenth century when Capt. Denison immigrated here at the urging of Hon. Peter Russell. His descendants now number several hundred in the Toronto area and beyond.

Bruce MacLellan and Karen Girling made their first gift to Fort York two years ago. But after visiting the site with Foundation Chair Andrew Stewart, Executive Director Susan Perren, and Chief Curator Wayne Reeves in autumn 2013 they made a pledge equally generous as Mrs. Girling’s gift. Speaking as one, the donors shared their hopes for an expanded role for the fort: “Our family believes in the importance of making Canadian history accessible to people. Starting as newcomers in the 1790s, our Denison ancestors played a part in building and defending Canada, including at the Battle of York. Newcomers from all around the world are still building Canada and this visitors’ centre will help them learn about our great country.”

The Upper Canada Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is part of a patriotic service organization founded in 1890 for American women. In November 2012 three of its members visited Fort York, and toured the site, including the kitchens, before presenting a cheque for $1000 to Andrew Stewart. The DAR’s generosity is much appreciated and takes its place alongside other acts of goodwill to, and American interest in, Fort York, for example, a memorial plaque to Gen. Zebulon Pike erected in 1934 by the National Society of the United States Daughters of 1812, and a sugar maple planted along the south ramparts in 1968 by the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.

In addition to their $50,000 donation to support War of 1812 Bicentennial education programs at the City’s historic sites, TD Bank Group will be donating $100,000 to support the revitalization of the Garrison Common. This donation enhances the $1 million gift from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation to the Fort York Foundation for the Garrison Common.

The focus of the TD Bank Group’s donation will be on the west end of the Common and in the area of the Strachan Avenue Military Burial Ground, the focal point of our annual Remembrance Day Ceremony. Improvements to this area will include new walkways, interpretive signage, tree plantings, and re-surfacing in the area surrounding the memorial wall and flagpole. Work is expected to be underway, if not complete, by the end of 2014.