The Gift / $1-million and climbing
The Cause / Gray-Hadden Family Foundation
The Reason / To fund financial literacy education.
Like many Canadians, Glenn Hadden will be hosting a Grey Cup party tomorrow. But Mr. Hadden and his friends will be doing more than drinking beer and watching football at a downtown Toronto restaurant, The Fifth Social Club. They'll be raising money for a new financial literacy program at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).
Mr. Hadden, 39, has been holding Grey Cup parties for seven years and he has raised more than $1-million for various youth programs. He got the idea in 2001 with his late wife, Cynthia Gray. At the time, the couple were based in London where Mr. Hadden was working for Goldman Sachs.
"We came back [to Toronto] every six months or so and noticed that there was a bit more fraying of the social fabric," he said. "We thought about why this was occurring. And of course we realized that the federal government, to balance its budget, offloaded their problems to the provinces, who offloaded theirs to the city and the cities were forced to cut services."
To help fill the gap, the couple created the Gray-Hadden Family Foundation to raise money for youth education programs. Mr. Hadden said they decided to hold one fundraising event annually, the Grey Cup party. "It's a uniquely Canadian institution and one of the few Canadian institutions actually left," said Mr. Hadden, who played football at the University of Western Ontario.
This year, Mr. Hadden is directing contributions to a program he is launching with the TDSB called Banking on Knowledge. He has pledged $300,000 to the initiative, which will teach high-school students the basics about money and banking.
"If we've learned anything in the last couple of years, it's definitely an area that is underserviced as far as an educational standpoint," he said. "And it is crucial to people in running their lives."
Ms. Gray died in 2007, and Mr. Hadden's mother, Pat, now helps organize the event from her home in Toronto. Mr. Hadden works for Goldman in New York as a bond trader and he brings dozens of expat Canadians home for the party.
Although he is an ardent Toronto Argonauts fan, Mr. Hadden didn't hesitate when asked who he will be pulling for tomorrow. "There is a line from years and years ago that says 'Saskatchewan is every Canadian's second favourite team,' " he said. "In the absence of the double blue [Argonauts], I will be in my vintage Kent Austin 1989 green and white."