The Wilsons are a Maritime Hallmark movie story — meeting in Halifax in the 1980s and enjoying love and memories which have spanned almost 40 years.
One aspect as consistent as their love is their desire to give back to their community, including the QEII Foundation.
“There are a number of charities we give to at the end of the year. They’re usually ones that center around health care, but we do take the time to go through the charity’s website and educate ourselves on what projects they are working on. We want to see the money given to these organizations being used effectively.”
Typically, the couple used the traditional forms of giving (cash, cheque or credit card) to make their donations until their financial broker brought to light the concept of giving through their securities.
“We’ve only been giving gifts of stock or securities to the QEII Foundation for the past couple of years. We were pleasantly surprised by how seamless the process was. Our broker brought it up to us as we were looking at our investments and what we could do to lessen our capital gains on them. She mentioned making charitable gifts through our securities. Within a couple of weeks, it was all done — tax receipts were issued and away we went. I think a lot of people just aren't aware that you can give this way. They're probably giving but not realizing that they can also benefit from a tax perspective.”
As to why the Wilsons give to the QEII Foundation, it comes down to the fact that the QEII Health Sciences Centre is their hospital.
“It’s our home hospital. It’s a regional hospital for the people in Halifax and then it cares for a number of people in Atlantic Canada. We know people who've been to the hospital. We’ve been lucky to not need to use the QEII services but it’s there if we need it. So why wouldn't you want to give to that?”
The Wilsons chose to give this year’s QEII Foundation donation towards the purchase of a da Vinci Xi surgical robot.
Dr. Boris Gala-Lopez is the hepato-biliary-pancreatic service chief to the surgical department at the QEII Health Sciences Centre and will be one of the first surgeons scheduled to use the new da Vinci Xi. He is thankful for all who decide to make a gift towards making this surgical robot a reality:
"It will be a significant benefit and advantage for our patients at the QEII. We are going to be able to do cases laparoscopically because of the delicacy of operation, we didn’t have the right tools on hand. We will be able to perform very complex surgeries in any specialty and to be able to do it in a minimally invasive way, which can mean leading to quicker recovery times. The da Vinci Xi will benefit cancer patients as they can often heal faster from surgery to be able to start any follow-up treatments (such as chemotherapy) faster. Giving to support the da Vinci Xi robot is an opportunity to invest in the future of health care at the QEII.”
To learn more about giving a gift of securities and to support health care at the QEII today, visit QE2Foundation.ca/securities.
