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The donor: Cherie Brant

The gift: $100,000

The cause: Anishnawbe Health Foundation

The reason: To build a new centre

When Cherie Brant was growing up in Toronto, Anishnawbe Health was a critical link to her First Nation heritage.

“Anishnawbe Health Toronto was an incredible place for me,” said Ms. Brant, a Toronto lawyer whose background is Mohawk and Ojibway. “It was an outlet. ... I had access to my culture.”

Ms. Brant joined the centre’s youth group as a teenager and learned traditional ceremonies and spirituality from elders. She also turned to the centre’s counselling services when her father died and went through a traditional mourning ceremony at the centre that proved invaluable. “Even that one experience just really provided me with the skills and the tools to cope with that difficult situation,” said Ms. Brant, who is a partner in the Indigenous law group at the Toronto law firm BLG LLP. The centre also arranged for her brother, Joseph Brant, to spend several days with a Chippewa healer from Red Lake, Minn., who treated a serious rash that Mr. Brant had contracted, which had confounded doctors in Toronto.

When Anishnawbe Health Foundation launched a $10-million fundraising campaign two years ago to build a new centre, Ms. Brant joined the foundation’s board and and has now donated $100,000. About two-thirds of the money has been raised and the foundation is hoping the centre will be open in a couple of years.

Ms. Brant said the new building will bring all of the centre’s services under one roof. “There’s a tremendous need,” she said. Reflecting on her own ties to the organization she added: “There’s just so many touch points ... it mattered so much to me.”

pwaldie@globeandmail.com

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