2022 Award Recipients
TORONTO, ON (October 18, 2022) — The Greater Toronto Chapter Awards Committee and Board of Directors are pleased to announced the 2022 Philanthropy Award recipients.
The 2022 honourees are:
- Outstanding Fundraising Volunteer – Large Organization: Maxine Granovsky Gluskin
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Ted Garrard
- Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy: Deccan Gill
- Outstanding Foundation or Philanthropic Group: motionball for Special Olympics
- Outstanding Fundraising Professional: Caroline Riseboro
- Outstanding Philanthropist: Dr. Allan Carswell
Watch the award recipient videos!
Outstanding Fundraising Volunteer – Large Organization: Maxine Granovsky Gluskin
Maxine Granovsky Gluskin has served on the boards of Sinai Health and Sinai Health Foundation since 2018.
She most recently co-chaired Sinai’s largest capital campaign in its history, Renew Sinai, raising funds for the expansion and modernization of Mount Sinai Hospital’s facilities.
Maxine is the former President of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of Ontario, serving in that capacity from 2013-2017 and a Vice President from 2005-2013. Currently, Maxine is the honourary Chair of the board and chairs the Nominating and Governance committee. She has served on many other not-for-profit boards such as The National Ballet of Canada, The Bentway, and CIFAR to name a few.
Maxine is President of Maxine Gran Investments, a family-owned investment management company, and was formerly an executive at Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. a large privately owned paper and packaging company.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Ted Garrard
Ted Garrard is Chief Executive Officer of SickKids Foundation which supports one of the world’s leading centres for pediatric care, research and learning – the Hospital for Sick Children. The Foundation raises more than $200 million annually, has endowments valued in excess of $1.1 billion, and is the largest non-governmental funder of children’s health in Canada. In October 2017, SickKids Foundation launched the largest fundraising campaign in Canadian healthcare history – $1.5 billion. At SickKids Foundation Ted oversees an operating budget of $60 million and 225 employees.
Prior to joining the Foundation Ted served as Vice-President, External at The University of Western Ontario from 1996-2009, where he led campaigns that raised more than $600 million. At Western, he was also responsible for alumni relations, communications and public affairs, and community relations.
He also spent 13 years at United Way of Toronto in a variety of roles including leading all fundraising operations.
Ted is a Past Chair of the Canadian Children’s Hospital Foundation Executives, Past Chair of the Woodmark Group (the group represents 25 of the largest children’s hospitals in North America), a past Director of Children’s Miracle Network, past Chair of Imagine Canada, Past Chair of United Way of London-Middlesex, a past Director of United Way/Centraide Canada, and a past Director of the Canadian Council for Advancement in Education. He received the Association of Fundraising Professional’s Outstanding Fundraising Executive Award in 1997, was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 1998, and in 2014 was named Outstanding Communicator by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). In June 2018, Ted was honoured with the Order of Canada.
Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy: Deccan Gill
At the age of 1, Deccan Gill was already in love with the game of hockey and was displaying high shooting accuracy. When Deccan was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy just after his 3rd birthday, his family started their fundraising efforts while processing the diagnosis.
Now at only 6 years old, Deccan’s interpersonal skills and creativity make him an inspiration to many. In addition to his strong social media platform, @SuperDeccan, Deccan has reached audiences through radio and television on Sportsnet, TSN, Bardown, Hockey Night in Canada (English and Punjabi), CTV News, CP24, NBC News, and Japanese television. Deccan’s active media presence has brought heightened awareness of neuromuscular disorders and has helped raise over $200,000 in just 4 years.
Alongside his participation in the neuromuscular community, Deccan is enthusiastically involved in hockey. He is an active member in the community-building initiative, Hockey Equality, holds 2 hockey records in the Kids World Records Book, and was ranked as a 2021 Rookie Junior Influencer by HockeyShot.
By sharing his story, dazzling people with his hockey skills, and representing children with neuromuscular disorders, Deccan and his family hope to keep up their tremendous impact in the philanthropy arena and are discovering the power of making real-world changes in the non-profit space.
Outstanding Foundation or Philanthropic Group: motionball for Special Olympics
motionball was launched in 2002 by 3 brothers (Mark, Sean, and Paul) who also happen to be best friends. In their day jobs, Sean is President of Assante Wealth Management with over 700 advisors working under him. Mark and Paul are business partners and run Etherington Generations which is a private boutique insurance consultancy firm that specializes in Employee Group Benefits and Life Insurance.
motionball’s mission is to introduce the next generation of Canadian young professionals and University students to Special Olympics through integrated social and sporting events, while also providing meaningful volunteer leadership opportunities. Their goal is to bring fun back into giving.
To date, motionball has donated $17,000,000 to the Special Olympics movement and on an annual basis, motionball is running 50+ annual events in 20 Canadian cities and on 35 University campuses. motionball has also created an anti-bullying social awareness campaign called #nogoodway designed to stop the negative and casual use of the R word (retard or retarded) within everyday conversation.
Outstanding Philanthropist: Dr. Allan Carswell
Allan Carswell graduated in 1960 from the University of Toronto with a B.A.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics and Ph.D. in Physics. He studied the following year on a Canadian National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Amsterdam. On his return to Canada, Dr. Carswell joined the RCA Victor Plasma Research Laboratories in Montreal in May of 1961 just a few months after the very first lasers had been invented. One of these was the continuous helium-neon ionized gas laser. The wise folks at RCA recognized the potential importance of this new “plasma” laser and they assigned Allan to start a laser study along with his research activities on microwave propagation in ionized gas plasmas. In 1965, he was appointed founding Director of the RCA Optical and Microwave Research Laboratory leading research on millimeter microwave systems, gas discharge lasers, and their applications. This group developed the first helium-neon and carbon dioxide lasers in Canada. As a result, Allan is one of the few people that made the first laser that he ever saw. These unexpected events started him on a lifelong laser career.
In 1968, Dr. Carswell joined the faculty of York University in Toronto where he continued his laser research as a Professor of Physics. He worked on the properties and applications of high-power lasers and initiated lidar (laser radar) research for remote sensing and environmental diagnostics. In addition to his teaching and research activities, Dr. Carswell was a founding member, Laboratory Director, Chairman of the Technical Program Committee, and Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science (ISTS), a Canadian Centre of Excellence in Space Science. He was Laboratory Director and Principal Investigator in the International Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) responsible for the operation of Lidar Atmospheric Observatories in Toronto and at Eureka in the Canadian High Arctic. He served as Co-Investigator of the MAD DAWG lidar instrument accepted by NASA for inclusion in the 2003 Mars lander mission. Although this mission was aborted, the lidar instrument development work continued as part of the NASA/CSA supported MATADOR program. His expertise with lidar led to the invitation from NASA to include a Canadian lidar on “PHOENIX”, the NASA 2007 mission to Mars. Dr. Carswell served as Co-Investigator, Meteorology, for the Phoenix mission and led the development of the first lidar on Mars for studies of the Martian atmosphere. This lidar discovered the existence of snowfall on Mars, a previously unknown component of the Martian hydrological cycle. In recognition of their seminal contribution to this mission, Allan along with his wife Helen and other members of the Phoenix mission team have their names engraved on a silicon mini-DVD on the Phoenix spacecraft remaining on the surface of Mars.
In 1974, Dr. Carswell, along with his wife Helen, founded Optech Incorporated, as a “spin-off” from his university research to enable an increased emphasis on the more practical applications of lidar systems. Optech developed lidar systems and applications using advanced electro-optical technology to become the world leader in the provision of lasers for airborne surveying, 3-D imaging, atmospheric measurements, process control applications, and space systems. Optech grew to over 300 employees serving international markets from its locations in Toronto, Belgium, and USA at Rochester and the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. In 2015, Optech was purchased by Teledyne Technologies Incorporated and Teledyne Optech continues to play a leading role in the international provision of advanced laser systems.
Dr. Carswell is a recipient of the Order of Canada and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Physicists, the Optical Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the Professional Engineers of Ontario. Dr. Carswell has served in many senior professional capacities, including President of the Canadian Association of Physicists and Vice President of the Canadian Academy of Science. He has served as a Board member of several research institutes, charitable, and industrial corporations. Dr. Carswell is the Founder and President of the Carswell Family Foundation supporting community work in Education and Health Care. He is the author of over 250 scientific and technical publications and has won awards for achievements in R&D, Innovation, Space Science, Entrepreneurship, and Engineering & Construction Technology.