Canadian Philantrophy

On January 11, Mr. and Mrs. Pindoff gave in a single private donation of $5 million to the Canadian Red Cross. Their story captured the imagination of many and did much to help in relief efforts of the Boxing Day South Asian Tsunami. Aside from the traditional concerts and media fund-raising events, Canadians have been pretty innovative in finding ways to raise funds. There was the very Canadian hockey events. A most admirable event were the children's joint effort in the Toronto School District that raised $1.32 million in response to a challenge put forward by a nine-year old. According to FM Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's estimated financial donations for tsunami relief as of Jan 3 was about $80 million, out of which $38 million were individual's donations. I think that is much more than US has been able to raise. Considering the population size of Canada (32 million), this has much to say about Canadian's philantrophic tradition.