Rendezvous by/par Chartwell Winter 2020 | Page 15

OUR RESIDENTS Still Serving: Meet the Million Dollar Man If you see Will Dwyer walking your way, just get out your wallet. Resistance is futile when it comes to this resident of Chartwell Whispering Pines in Barrie, ON. He recently hit the astonishing mark of $1-million person- ally raised for the Terry Fox Foundation for cancer research. The Second World War veteran lost his mother to cancer when he was a young man and the disease claimed two of his seven children. Fundraising for this important cause seemed like another way he could serve and so, 40 years ago, he began collecting. “It was small amounts sometimes but it grew as years went by,” he says. “And I kept going.” Well done, Will. You are one in a million! Ron Moir, who visits his wife Sonia in LTC every day, was so pleased he paid tribute with a poem. To call it just the Tunnel is definitely not fair. Kitchener’s Tunnel of Love Roads can be covered by stone, by asphalt, even by grass - but at Chartwell Westmount Retirement Residence in Kitchener, ON, the path- way is paved with love. An indoor tunnel connecting the resi- dence with Chartwell Westmount Long Term Care next door was built for convenience – but serves a more profound purpose. More than 20 friends and spouses traverse it to visit loved ones from whom they are separated by different care needs. What was once a plain It’s a perfect, safe connection to visit Long Term Care. tunnel is being transformed with murals celebrating Waterloo County. With design led by the residence’s artistically gifted bus driver Sandy, the goal is to have every person who lives and works at the two residences have a brush stroke on the mural. The scenery will change with the seasons as students at two local schools add crafted adornments – butterflies and birds will arrive for spring and summer, jack-o-lanterns for fall and, of course, poppies for Remembrance Day. It shields you in the winter if cold and snow you shun. And then of course in summer months, protects you from the sun. It does not care how old you are or if you’re short or tall. Please come and use me anytime, I welcome you all. For residents with wheelchairs, it’s a blessing from above. Let’s call it by its proper name – our Tunnel Filled With Love. RENDEZVOUS 15