Causes we are supporting in 2025/26
Each year, we will support a variety of initiatives to help youth thrive.
01
We supported the Education Matters campaign to ensure that Kindergarten to Grade 12 students receive backpacks filled with essential supplies for the 2025-26 school year with a $10000 donation.
02
Club Sponsorship
To build upon Graeme’s legacy of always being available to help others, this grant is meant to enable students to pursue their extracurricular passion projects without having to worry about the cost of club fees.
Variable grants (up to $500 each) were made available. Applications (via club sponsors/teachers) have been received and reviewed. Students were asked to provide a brief statement as to how the club activities will facilitate their goals, as well as a brief summary of their financial needs.
Congratulations to GF, NP, and AY who received sponsorship for their club endeavours!
03
Humble Hero Award
In every school there are those students who are naturally inclined to help others and improve the community, but may shy away from the limelight. These individuals show that they consistently care about the well-being and success of those around them, irrespective of recognition.
The Humble Hero Award recognizes an outstanding, but unsung, student who has demonstrated a genuine and consistent desire to help others in their studies, extracurricular activities or personally, but may be overlooked by established awards.
Value: $2500 each
The winners of the Humble Hero Award are EM, IW, and KC. Congratulations! We couldn't decide on one Humble Hero, so ended up awarding three! Thank you for all that you do to help others.
The collective awardees of the Humble Hero and GW Excellece Award were asked to choose a charity where the GW Foundation should donate $2000 towards--this was their choice:
"Thank you for your patience while we had a group discussion regarding which mental health organization to support through our donation. While I cannot speak for everyone individually, I am certain that we all share this view: supporting organizations who assist youth, through crisis phone/text lines, initiatives for spreading awareness and combating the stigma behind mental health, and/or funding mental health research for adolescents, are all causes that Graeme would have supported and encouraged. As recipients of awards from the Graeme Wada Foundation, we are all deeply grateful for the opportunity to be able to represent Graeme's values and to continue his legacy by advocating for causes that truly mattered to him, and to us all.
As a collective, we have finalized our decision to donate to the Mental Health Research 4 Kids program (https://www.mentalhealthresearch4kids.ca/about-us). This program is funded through the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation's "Build Them Up" program, but also involves the help, scientists, and researchers from several organizations such as AHS, University of Calgary and the Owerko Centre, among others."
04
Graeme Wada Excellence Award
Graeme had a wide range of interests and talents, as evidenced by his love of not only Math and Physics,
but Social studies and History. Graeme was endlessly curious, incredibly generous and always ready to share his knowledge so that he could help others.
Value: $2500. The award will be given to the student with the highest combined average in the subjects of Social Studies 30, Math 30 and Physics 30.
The winner of the Graeme Wada Excellence Award for the 2025/26 School year is AW -- Congratulations!
Help Us Decide What Other Initiatives to Support
Graeme was passionate about teaching and loved working at Code Ninjas to help kids learn how to code. He took the job seriously, but most importantly he loved working with the kids and seeing them do well. We would love to hear from you about other worthy causes that we could support.