The CAPE community is made up of donors from across Canada, without whom our work would not be possible. We thank each and every one of you for your heartfelt generosity and commitment to co-creating change for a healthy planet!
Ray Letheren
Ray Letheren has been a donor to CAPE for 29 years. Following his career as an educator, a chance meeting with one of CAPE’s founders changed the trajectory of his retirement into leadership in environmental activism on pesticides, plastics, and water. This is his CAPE donor story, in his own words:
“Upon retirement from teaching in 1994, we moved to Huron County, Ontario. My new medical doctor was Dr. Jim Hollingworth. I noted upon arrival for my first appointment that his license plate said “ban24D”. We did discuss my medical issue but the bulk of the time was Jim outlining the negative impact of pesticides and the work CAPE was doing to bring an end to its cosmetic use. I took up the cause and along with a concerned group of Bayfield citizens formed a group called Blue Bayfield. We soon became conscious of the 34 identified threats to the Great Lakes (Dr. David Allen, University of Michigan) not the least of which was the unnecessary single use plastic. Dr. Jim encouraged me to seek a role on the local hospital board, where for 11 years we worked to heighten the awareness of environmental responsibility. Meanwhile, Blue Bayfield was working to create an environment in which citizens could assess and alter their environmental behaviour. In 2005, Maude Barlow, the world leading authority on water issues, awarded us Blue Community status committing us to reducing single use plastics world-wide. We travelled throughout Canada sharing the Bayfield model. Our work was recognized in the UK by an organization representing 4000 communities across the UK, Surfers Against Sewage. It declared Bayfield the first “Plastic Free Community” in North America.
The COVID pandemic changed the game plan. No longer travelling, I collaborated with a medically-trained colleague, Betty Durst and wrote a book called The Great Lakes: A Time of Reckoning, which outlines the problems threatening our water and offers ideas on how we can do some things around the home to make a difference. But the success with adults, while important, is superseded by the engagement of local high school student organizations in adopting the Bayfield model. Blue Schools Network initiated in the fall of 2023 as a province-wide school-based water protection project. The book and school curriculum resources are available online.
One encounter with CAPE on the advice of a committed doctor started citizens on a voyage that, in time, influenced the behaviour of thousands, with the intent of improving the quality of life and reducing the incidence of illness. I am proud to have been a supporter of CAPE for these past 29 years.”
Dr. Kate MacKeracher
Dr. Kate MacKeracher is a general practitioner working on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. She learned about CAPE from president-elect, Dr. Samantha Green, as they were classmates during their undergraduate training. She describes that her community felt the effects of wildfire smoke from near Sudbury during the spring and summer of 2023: “I saw lots of people in the ER with respiratory distress whenever the smoke was bad.”
Kate became a monthly donor and committed support to CAPE because, in her words, “I’m grateful for the advocacy work CAPE does. It’s easy to feel helpless and hopeless when it comes to climate change, but contributing to CAPE even in a small way brings a sense of solidarity and agency. Thanks to everyone at CAPE for all you do!”
Drs. Stephen Wilton and Jan Ooi
Drs. Stephen Wilton and Jan Ooi are committed to addressing the root causes of climate change that are impacting the health of their patients and community. To move the needle on these issues, they are engaged with CAPE through the Alberta regional committee, as donors, and through Stephen’s participation in the Advocacy and Mobilization Program. Meeting active members of CAPE’s board of directors shone light on an approach to climate advocacy that could include their voice as physicians and help to grow the community of healthcare practitioners involved with advocacy.
“I had become increasingly alarmed with the changing climate, forest fires and smoke across western Canada — and now it’s everywhere. As physicians, we are lucky to have the work we do, and the means to help, especially when not all of us can volunteer as we wish we could. A big reason for physicians to donate to CAPE is that it’s one of the most impactful and effective things that we can do to address climate causes. In turn, CAPE can use these donations to grow their successful work such as policy change and programs like the new Advocacy and Mobilization Program.” — Dr. Stephen Wilton
We thank donors like you, Stephen, and Jan, in building the grassroots momentum needed to make climate action happen at the local level — all throughout Canada.
Dr. Samantha Green
“We, as a family, do our best to act on climate, reduce pollution, and protect people and the Earth. We’ve recently fully kicked gas (bye-bye, dishonest Enbridge!), for example. And we talk to our kids every day about imagining the world we want and need—a world premised on wellbeing for all and respect for the planet.
But we cannot solve the climate crisis as individuals or households: it’s a collective problem requiring collective solutions. And that’s why I’m so grateful to be part of the CAPE community of advocates, and why our family is donating to CAPE.
I’m inviting you to join me and my family in supporting the work of CAPE in advancing climate solutions and protecting the health of people and the planet.”
Dr. Samantha Green is a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and at Inner City Health Associates in Toronto. She is the president-elect of CAPE. She is the co-director of Temerty Medicine’s Taking Action on Planetary Health certificate program, and co-chair of the CanMEDS 2025 planetary health committee.
Drs. John Howard and Nicole Le Riche
“With three grown children and grandparents of eight, we are worried about the world they will inherit. We want to ensure the health of their environment for many years to come. We have found that one of the best ways we can help is through our monetary support of CAPE.
We consider CAPE to be a “lean, mean, fighting machine” – both efficient and effective – an organization where one’s donation makes a significant difference. We are very happy to support their work and have been proud of how our donations have had a tangible effect on improving the Canadian environment.”
Drs. John Howard and Nicole Le Riche have been pivotal in shaping CAPE as donors and leaders for many years. In 2021, their gift enabled CAPE to undertake the strategic planning that is giving us focus today.
Rochelle Rubinstein
“The environment, human health, art, and activism are interconnected in a powerful way.” Rochelle Rubinstein is a visual artist and community arts facilitator based in Toronto, Ontario. In addition to investing in CAPE’s mission, she has written for Green Teacher Magazine and other publications on the health risks of artificial turf, which is increasingly replacing natural grass fields and playgrounds in Canada. As a mother and grandmother, her concern for children’s health has been a motivating factor to her advocacy. She dreams of a world where toxic exposures are not acceptable and she believes in the mobilizing power of physicians in Canada to take action to protect our communities from these harms.
Tamara Bernstein
“I acquired a visceral aversion to car culture when I lived in Windsor for a couple of years in the 1980s. The double whammy of the smokestacks of the automotive factories and exhaust from trans-border trucking made it impossible not to see the dark underside of all those glamorous car ads. I still remember the disgusting black grime on the wall around indoor air vents!
Not long afterward, a beloved colleague from those years – a sublime violinist with an infectious love of life and a phenomenal gift for teaching – died prematurely of breast cancer, which I later learned occurs at elevated rates in Windsor (along with prostate and lung cancer). Since then, many other friends and family members have been hit with this terrible disease.
Given what we now know of its links to automotive pollution, consumers need to be reminded of the consequences of fossil fuel combustion on the planet and on everyone’s health, the same way we are reminded of the consequences of smoking if we buy a pack of cigarettes. That’s why I’m pleased to support CAPE’s campaign to ban the advertisement of fossil fuels.”
With acknowledgment of the Zita and Mark Bernstein Family Foundation
Brynn
“I have always been deeply interested in and concerned about the environment. But, the common line of messaging from environmental advocacy groups that I have supported in different ways does not capture the mass attention that is needed to solve this challenge.
At 37 years old, I was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive, non-hormonal type of breast cancer. I’m fully through treatment, and onto monitoring now, so I’m in good shape. What I want is to never have had the diagnosis to begin with. I don’t see nearly sufficient attention out there on prevention.
CAPE, for me, is the perfect combination of putting out broadly relevant messaging on the environment and spotlighting the changes we need to be making for human health. I am grateful for your organization’s message.”
Dr. Clarissa Wallace
“For the first time in my life, I have joined an organization whose purpose is social change. I’m a BC Lower Mainland endocrinologist. These last few years not even I can help but see the devastating reality of climate change. This has forced me to ask ‘what can I do?’ The easy part was sending money. I know I need to ‘step up’. CAPE is showing me how to do this in manageable pieces. It’s time to take on my share of a different responsibility, to push in the ways that I can for a future that preserves as much as possible of our amazing world.”
Rocky Feroe
“I continue to help CAPE financially despite retirement, lack of income, and yearly lectures from my accountant. I donate when and as I can but never as much as I did before retirement and never as much as I’d like. I still do something to push our collective cause ahead. Like I used to tell my patients, “Life sucks and then you die. Step over the bodies and let’s keep doing all the good we can.” Remember to give and if you are retired, contribute your talents or at least what money you can.”
Photo: Rocky Feroe and friends, “Biking Witches for Planetary Health” in Riverdale Edmonton. Feroe, second from the right, believes photos rob the soul.
If you would like to be featured on this page, we invite you to send us a clear photo of yourself and a brief (sentence or two) statement about why you support CAPE. If you would prefer to not have your photo displayed, that’s okay too, we would still like to include you. We will also highlight a donor or two (chosen at random) to appear in upcoming newsletters.
Please email your details and any questions to Donor Relations Manager, Karina Cardona: karina@cape.ca