One of Saint John’s most generous families plans to create a lasting legacy in order to keep supporting worthy local causes.
At the Imperial theatre which is home to their annual concert, Tracy Friars announced they will be creating an endowment fund to be administered by the Greater Saint John Community Foundation.
Friars also announced that for the second time since 2015, proceeds from November’s “Let’s Celebrate” concert will go towards the five priority neighbourhoods in Saint John.
We asked why those chose to support them again.
Tracy Friars announces the 2018 recipient of some proceeds from of the “Let’s Celebrate” concert will be the five priority neighbourhoods. They were previously supported in 2015. pic.twitter.com/n2fdeiFSBU
— Tamara Steele (@tamarasteele1) June 18, 2018
“We learned from them that the simplest things make the difference, so when we decided we wanted to look at one of the organizations we supported in the past for this our 15th year, it was just simple,” Friars says, “they rose right to the top for us”.
Close to 1 million dollars has been raised in the 15 years the Friars sisters have been putting on their concerts at the Imperial Theatre.
After this year, money raised from the annual concert will go towards their endowment fund.
Juanita Black of the Around the Block community newspaper tells us the funding from the Friars sister concert supported the development of programs for newcomers with cooking classes in the Crescent Valley.
“So we could know their culture. It’s a pretty good community. To see that Friars’ money enables us to do more than we could have done without it, it really really really makes a difference,” Black said.
Black thinks the family was touched to see what they did the money and how they stretched it.