Lindsay Sleeth is changing lives and London West MP Ed Holder (BA’76) is supporting her efforts.
As Director of the Faculty of Health Sciences Dream Team, Sleeth, a fourth-year Western Health Sciences student is helping grant wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses, by raising money for the southwestern Ontario chapter of Make-a-Wish Foundation.
“I had the opportunity to meet a wish-child three years ago and seeing the joy something so small could bring to not only the child but their entire family inspired me to want to continue to try and make a difference,” says Sleeth.
Because of her volunteer work with the Dream Team, as well as at Parkwood Hospital and as a Faculty of Health Sciences Soph, Sleeth was chosen to receive the Bruno DaSilva Community Service Award worth $4,500.
“Lindsay lives and breathes community,” says Holder who along with his wife Judite donated $100,000 to Western to create the award to honour the memory of their active and community-minded 14-year-old son who was killed in a car accident in 1996. “She is a giver and inspires others to be better.”
Holder says his son had a tremendous heart for people and when he recently met Sleeth and found out how she is reaching out and making others better by being around her, it touched his heart.
The Bruno Ad Silva Community Service Award is awarded annually to a third or fourth year student enrolled in an honors program, with an emphasis on recognizing leadership qualities and commitment to community services.
Sleeth says she was thrilled to thank Holder in person for his family’s generous gift.
“It is my hope that this award will continue to honour the students that continually devote their time to bettering the lives of others,” says Sleeth. “It is our donors that allow so many of the wonderful things that happen at Western to occur.”
Holder says he believes in giving back to Western and its students because he recognizes what his alma mater has done for him.
“We are products of everything we have learned and everyone we have met,” says Holder. “Our school is a huge part of who we are. Supporting Western lets us be the do-ers; it lets us make a difference in others’ lives; to create the inspirers who will in turn be the next generation of givers. When we give to Western, there is no greater example of paying it forward.”
