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Our Contribution to Canada and the World

The following history of IODE’s contribution to society reflects only a small portion of the volunteer hours and monetary donations given. Each decade reflects the historical road members took as they gathered awareness to the needs around them and responded in innovative, creative and diverse ways.

Today, members from across Canada raise approximately $3,000,000 annually, and reinvest it in Canada’s children, families and communities.

2000 – 2007
  • Presented the 100th Anniversary gift for Canada of $200,000 to Minister of Labour Claudette Bradshaw.

1995 – 2000
  • The Provincial Chapter of Ontario started the “You Can’t Beat a Kid” button campaign to raise funds for the 100th Anniversary Program to alleviate child abuse and neglect.

1990 – 1995
  • Built the IODE Percussive Arts Centre for the Music Camp at the International Peace Garden as its 90th anniversary project.
  • Established a fund with a goal of $100,000 to provide a gift for Canada for the IODE 100th anniversary.
  • Donated $100,000 for the new Cardiac Care Unit at Saint John Regional Hospital.
  • Produced talking books for the blind.
  • Established a $50,000 bursary fund at the University of Northern British Columbia.
  • Purchased a Medi-Man Lift for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Prince Edward Island.
  • Organized Focus on Canadian Unity Day, October 26, 1991.
  • Established a Directory of Genetic Support Groups and opened the Provincial IODE Genetic Resource Centre in London, Ontario.
  • Instituted an annual award for a member of the RCMP.
  • Equipped an industrial arts room in Happy-Valley, Goose Bay.
  • Established the Labrador Substance Abuse Prevention Program to provide peer counselling.
  • Undertook Born to Read as a project in New Brunswick to provide books to mother to newborns. This program has spread across the country.
  • Provided schools with food for students needing a lunch with the Food for Thought Box program.
  • Set a goal to $100,00 for a Staff and Patient Education Centre at Halifax’s Grace Hospital.
  • Created a one-time Woman in Sciences Award in the amount of $7,500.
  • Gifted Manitoba’s Selkirk Healing Centre with bedding for 80 units.
  • Donated to the Enrichment Computer Camp for Communications Exceptionalities so hearing impaired children can attend summer camp at the Robarts School in London, Ontario.
  • Pledged $10,000 per year for three years towards education for workers at Kids Kottage, Edmonton.
  • Laid a commemorative Festival of the Fathers Brick at Peakes Quay, PEI.
  • Refurbished the Charlottetown Boys and Girls Club.

1980 – 1989
  • Launched the fund, Invest in the Future, with a capital of $90,000 to provide bursaries for post secondary education for Labrador students.
  • Supported Labrador schools with computers, musical instruments, sports equipment, and funding for participation in science fairs and drama festivals.
  • Furnished and equipped a home economics room in Nain, and a science room in Cartwright.
  • Started the Snack Pack programme to provide milk, cookies and juice to 850 students in Black Tickle, Davis Inlet, Happy Valley, Hopedale, Makkovik, Nain and Northwest River.
  • Presented a $12,000 fellowship in physiotherapy to mark The Year of the Disabled.
  • Formed Blanket Canada, a project that provided $10,000 of warm bedding across Canada.
  • Created the Canadian Activity Book for grade 4 students.
  • Set a goal to raise $100,000 to purchase a kidney machine to support Dr. John Crocker’s kidney disease research at Izaak Walton Killam Children’s Hospital, Halifax.
  • Presented three fellowships in medical genetics.
  • Shipped boots, skates, slippers and shoes to children in remote regions through the Footwear for Kids program.
  • Attacked child abuse with a training videotape, manual and education grants for child care workers.
  • Gave the first microcomputer of its kind in North America for use by the blind to the University of Regina.
  • Assisted children with cancer at Camp Goodtimes.
  • Furnished the Ronald McDonald playroom in Winnipeg.
  • Supported camps for the underprivileged and the mentally or physically handicapped.
  • Assisted women’s shelters and school breakfast and lunch programs.
  • Funded the building of the Glaucoma Eye Centre, contributing over $360,000.
  • Announced The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for the best in Canadian children’s literature.

1970 - 1979
  • Continued work in the Northwest Territories with the Corky project, providing bathing suits and portable pools for swimming lessons for native children.  Created Operation Sound to meet the needs of many hearing-impaired Inuit children providing $50,000 worth of hearing aids, desk monitor sets and hearing rooms in schools.
  • Established the Toronto Municipal Chapter Book Award. The winner of the first award was Dennis Lee for Alligator Pie.
  • Donated therapeutic equipment and built a community hall in Attawapiskat for the 50th anniversary celebration.
  • An IODE rose was bred, and the red floribunda bushes were sold across Canada to raise funds to benefit children as a 75th anniversary project, Concern for Children.
  • Concern for Children projects assisted children with learning disabilities, research into islet transplantation for diabetic children, kidney disease research and genetic counselling clinics.
  • Presented the first Police Community Relations Awards.
  • Inaugurated the Labrador Fund to provide learning materials and toys for a day care centre in Northwest River.
  • Started a breakfast program where 350 children were given a nutritious mid-morning snack, including milk, at Davis Inlet and Northwest River, Labrador.
  • Donated a handibus and a hydraulically equipped van to assist veterans.
  • Created the CNIB resource centre in Edmonton.
  • Raised $50,000 to furnish the Prime Minister’s office in Saskatoon’s Diefenbaker Centre.
  • Began the Silence to Sound program in Quebec, providing annual awards to a speech pathologist and an audiologist.
  • Bred, and the red floribunda bushes were sold across Canada to raise funds to benefit children as a 75th anniversary project, Concern for Children.
  • Funded the building of the Glaucoma Eye Centre, contributing over $360,000.
  • Announced The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for the best in Canadian children’s literature.

1960 – 1969
  • Assisted in building community halls in Frobisher Bay, Tuktoyaktuk and Baker Lake, Northwest Territories.
  • Paid the full university tuition for the first Inuit to come south, earn a medical degree and return north.
  • Opened Clark House, a home for senior citizens in Fredericton; sold in the 1990’s, the investment provides nine annual bursaries for community college students.
  • Established the Pen Pals program where more than 6,000 Canadian school children communicated at home and abroad.
  • Began the Toys for the North program.

1950 – 1959
  • Raised $100,000 for relief in Britain through the exhibition of Queen Mary’s carpet.
  • Assisted the victims of floods in Manitoba, England and Holland, of the Springhill, Nova Scotia mine cave-in and of war in Korea.
  • Shipped hospital equipment, clothing, bedding and hundreds of knitted socks to Korea.
  • Agreed to assist Canadian veterans and their families living in England and this program continues to this day.
  • Adopted a child in Kalempong, India.
  • Welcomed new Canadians at citizenship court ceremonies.
  • Focused on education activities by adopting schools in the Artic, rural areas and the West Indies.
  • Established two $1500 scholarships for medical students in India.
  • Assisted or established reference libraries in 50 schools in the West Indies and British Honduras.

1940 – 1949
  • First to send relief, both monetary and material, to Britain when World War II began.
  • Raised funds to purchase several aircraft.
  • Donated four mobile canteens to the forces stationed in Britain.
  • Sent clothing to Polish people evacuated to remote parts of Russia.
  • Collected and distributed 1,404,831 books; $366,158 spent on new books.
  • Knitted items were made by members across Canada and shipped abroad.
  • Shipped 87 wedding outfits to Britain.
  • Created The Avenue of Trees to honour those who lost their lives during the war in Saskatchewan.
  • Raised over $1,000,000 from 1946 to 1950.
  • Adopted the HMCS Magnificent.
  • Assisted India with the translation and publishing of textbooks.
  • Created the Lucy Morrison Fund for Education and donated over $500,000 in grants, bursaries and fellowships.
  • Established the Second War Memorial Fund to honour Canadians who gave their lives in defence of freedom. As of 1995, more than 500 scholars have been awarded $3.7 million.

1930 – 1939
  • Throughout the depression, IODE chapters opened relief centres and worked with public welfare departments to provide food, clothing and medical care.
  • Initiated sewing classes for those on welfare.
  • Donated textbooks for grades 1 to 9 in any outlying school that requested them.
  • First to organize the sale of Christmas Seals.
  • Contributed to the National Peace Garden, an on-going project to this day.
  • Assisted cancer patients, furnished rooms, lounges and solariums in cancer centres
  • War-specific training classes were organized for IODE so it could assist in active service on the home front.

1920 – 1929
  • Responded to Canada’s burgeoning immigration by greeting newcomers at the ports and assisted with their transition to life in Canada.
  • Offered scholarships and prizes to teachers working with children new to the country.
  • Sponsored the Handicrafts Guild annual exhibition, for the preservation of arts and crafts of those foreign-born.
  • Established and sponsored Girl Guide companies across Canada.
  • Inaugurated the Laura Secord Essay Contest in Manitoba.
  • Started and operated the town library in Stettler, Alberta.

1910 – 1919
  • Provided beds in existing sanatoria.
  • Established hospitals and institutions for health care.
  • Supported extensively Canadian and British troops overseas during the war.
  • Gave both monetary and volunteer assistance to convalescent and military hospitals, plus victims and orphans of the Halifax explosion.
  • Assisted with meals and canteens for soldiers.
  • The First Memorial Fund was set up.

1900 – 1909
  • Planted a red oak on the legislative grounds in Fredericton, New Brunswick on May 24, 1900.
  • Raised funds to honour the 90 Canadian soldiers who gave their lives in South Africa. A monument was unveiled in Bloemfontein, South Africa, By the Earl of Athlone (later Governor General of Canada), and IODE funds have helped to maintain the graves in intervening years.
  • Erected the Alexandra Gates, an iron grilled gateway to Queen’s Park, Toronto, to commemorate the visit to Canada of the Duke and Duchess of York – later King George V. and Queen Mary.
  • Formed an Education programme, Commonwealth Relations.
  • Built and furnished a room in a domestic science school in Bombay, India.
  • Provided beds in existing sanitoria in a campaign waged against tuberculosis.

OUR CONTRIBUTION TO CANADA'S WAR EFFORTS
1900 – 1902
IODE was founded in 1900 by Margaret Polson Murray of Montreal who recognized a need for loyal support for Canadians departing to fight with the Empire forces in South Africa. IODE members raised funds to honour the 90 Canadian soldiers who gave their lives. A monument was unveiled in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and IODE funds have helped to maintain the graves in intervening years.

1919 and 1946 to the present
To honour Canadians who gave their lives or suffered disabilities in the two World Wars, two War Memorial Funds for education were established. Over four million dollars have been awarded from the Funds. Today, five scholarships of $15,000 are awarded annually as IODE War Memorial Doctoral Scholarships.

World War I and II
During the periods of World War I and II, $12,000,000 was raised by IODE members to purchase hospitals, hospital ships, ambulances, bomber and fighter aircraft and field comforts for Canadian service personnel. Relief to prisoners of war and refugee camps, libraries and canteens for servicemen and thousands of volunteer hours were among the many contributions in both wars.

1940
During World War II, IODE raised funds to purchase a Bolingbroke Bomber. The bomber, known as “Ida”, was flown by a Hamilton Squadron during the war, and was presented to the Canadian Government in 1940. IODE has contributed significant funds to the restoration of a “Boly”, which can be seen in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Mount Hope, Ontario.

1944
A unique wartime gift in 1944 was the shipment of 87 wedding outfits to Women’s Service Headquarters to be distributed to British service women.

1946 to 1950
Over $1,000,000 was raised during the period of 1946 to 1950. Massive quantities of clothes, medical supplies and food were sent for relief of displaced persons. $100,000 was raised across Canada by exhibiting a needlepoint carpet made by Queen Mary and was used to provide much needed dollars for Britain following the Second World War.

1950 to present
Since 1950, Canadian WWI and WWII veterans and/or their dependents living in Britain have been provided annually with a Christmas voucher.

2003
IODE established the IODE Juno Beach Centre Fund to assist with equipment for the Centre.

2007
IODE Canada donated $5000 for the Wall of Memory, Canadian War Museum.

2008 to present
IODE Canada created a calendar, IODE Honours Canada’s Armed Forces at Work 2009, with a message from the Minister of Defence, The Honourable Minister Peter MacKay, P.C., M.P.
IODE recognizes our members and their families who are serving or served with our Canadian Forces in a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission overseas with a UN Peace Keeper Bar.
Each year on Remembrance Day, wreaths are placed at the National Cenotaph in Ottawa and at the cenotaph in St. John’s, Newfoundland to remember and honour those who have fallen, while serving our country.