BY AARON D’ANDREA
Original read here
TORONTO – “Those who have protected our home should never be without one.”
That’s the message of a fundraising campaign started by the Tony Stacey Centre for Veterans Care (TSC) in Scarborough.
The prominent centre, which has been around for 40 years, is in need of a $200,000 roof replacement — and the public’s help to make the repair a reality.
TSC is the only veterans’ long-term care facility in Canada that accepts non-serving spouses of veterans. As a result, the centre is not eligible for operational funding from Veterans Affairs.
The facility on Lawson Rd., in the Kingston and Meadowvale Rds. area, provides food, shelter and activities for about 100 people, including 32 residents who live in the wing with the damaged roof.
Staff discovered two years ago that the roof on the north wing of the building had water leaking into its units.
“We thought the problem was coming from our fencing (on the roof),” said Sherri Galler, associate executive director at TSC. “We did have some repairs done at that time, and it seemed to hold us off for a little bit.”
Since then, the centre has been collecting donations to help fund the repair.
However, inspectors recently reported that the damage is now so bad, the roof must be replaced immediately.
“We’ve been in the position sometimes where we move them out just for their own safety,” she said of residents in the north wing. “But we don’t want to put our residents in that situation again.”
So far, the TSC has raised $117,000 for the project.
“As much as we’ve tried to (fundraise) for the roof, there have been other things that have had to … be fixed,” Galler said. “That’s why we delayed the repairs as long as we did.”
The TSC had to put a generator in after the 2013 ice storm and made several repairs to the elevators, she said.
Galler said people interested in donating could do so at canadahelps.org or tonystaceycentre.ca.
