LeasideLife issue 22 final_LeasideLifev1 13-10-19 12:00 AM Page 1
No. 22 • November 2013
Leaside Life leasidelifenews.com
Leaside100
LOGAN ALLMENDINGER
1913-2013
THEY KICK STARTED IT ALL: Peter and Cathy Clark donated $1 million in 2010 to help build a second ice rink at Leaside Memorial Community Gardens. On hand for the cake cutting are Don Valley West MP John Carmichael, left, and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Councillor John Parker, at right. By ALLAN WILLIAMS The Leaside couple whose anonymous $1 million donation in 2010 kick started the fundraising campaign for the Leaside Memorial Community Gardens’ second rink has come forward for the first time. Peter and Cathy Clark were onhand Oct. 5 with about 500 other people when they were thanked by Arena Expansion Committee chair Paul Mercer during the opening ceremonies for the new rink. “They took a risk when none of this was guaranteed,” said Mercer, “because they believe that sport plays a key role in the health and well-being of young people.” Their donation enabled the hiring of an architect. “We believe that keeping kids active promotes healthy bodies and healthy minds,” said Peter Clark.
The couple who gave birth to the new ice rink
“And I found it frustrating that the available facilities for kids to participate in sports lag so far behind the needs of the community. We were keen to do something about it here in Leaside.” The Clarks have two sons, now aged 24 and 21, who both played house league hockey at Leaside Gardens, in addition to playing soccer, and experienced first-hand the shortage of local ice. “Supporting the arena project was in recognition of an obvious need,” said Peter Clark. “Our boys have both gone off to university, so this is too late to benefit them, but maybe our grandchildren…?” Peter Clark, a founding partner of Sprucegrove Investment Management, pointing out that this is the first new publicly-owned arena to be NEW RINK, Page 9