|
|
|
Media Release
|
| |
|
For Immediate Release: January 5, 2007
|
TORONTO - In response to the growing need for emergency financial aid for entertainment industry workers Actra Fraternal Benefit Society has made a major grant of $100,000 to the Actors' Fund of Canada for the second consecutive year. A cheque was presented to the Fund in a ceremony on December 18.
Says Actors' Fund Executive Director David Hope, "The impact of Actra Fraternal's support for the Fund has been enormous. Not only does this grant equal about a quarter of the amount of financial aid we expect to deliver this year, but Fraternal's annual contributions to the Fund - in increasing amounts - over the last decade have added to our financial stability and helped us cope with a doubling in the demand on our financial aid program since 2001." Expenditures for the Fund's financial aid program have climbed 5.3% over last year.
Adds Hope, "The first point in Actra Fraternal's mission statement is to support the general and economic welfare of artists in Canada. They are strengthening the safety net that supports artists, both through their generous annual grant to the Fund and in their daily collaboration with us to assist individual entertainment industry members in need."
|
L to R: Pierre Racicot, Ferne Downey, Thor Bishopric, David Adkins,
Graham Harley, Robert Underwood, David Hope, Guy Gauthier and David Ferry
|
AFBS President and CEO Robert Underwood commented, "Support for the Actors' Fund from all Members of AFBS helps us to fulfill our mandate, and we consider our partnership with the Fund one of our most important industry initiatives. The Writers Guild and ACTRA are very supportive of this partnership, as all of our collective members are eligible for assistance from the Fund. The Writers Guild of Canada requested that some of their surplus contributions to AFBS operations go to the Actors' Fund which helped make this grant possible."
AFBS's support for the Fund also extends to bricks and mortar. The Fund has recently relocated its offices to the newly renovated third floor of the building Fraternal owns at 1000 Yonge Street in Toronto. The space has been leased to the Fund for $1.00 a year.
Actra Fraternal Benefit Society is a not-for-profit, Member-owned, federally incorporated insurance company operating for over 30 years. Members of the Society are primarily Members of ACTRA and the Writers Guild of Canada.
The Actors' Fund of Canada is a registered charity that provides short-term financial aid to entertainment industry professionals working in theatre, film & TV, music and dance. Performers, creators, technical staff and other production team members can apply for help from the Fund which delivered over $400,000 in rent payments, grocery money, utility payments and other basic living expenses to clients in the last 12 months and over $3 million in the last 10 years.
The Actors' Fund receives no government funding and is wholly sustained by support from individuals and entertainment industry organizations.
|
--30--
|
CONTACT:
David Hope, The Actors' Fund of Canada
Phone: 1-877-399-8392
E-mail: contact@actorsfund.ca
Web site: www.actorsfund.ca
|
| |
|
|
|
|
©2010 The Actors' Fund of Canada - 1000 Yonge Street, Suite 301 Toronto, ON M4W 2K2
contact@actorsfund.ca / Tel: 416.975.0304 / Toll-Free: 1.877.399.8392 / Fax: 416.975.0306
|
|
|
