Elder donates $50,000
WINNIPEG,MB--William Woodford lives a simple life in a Manitoba Housing apartment downtown. The 85-year-old Saulteaux elder drinks water and doesn't eat junk food. He survived 13 years of residential school, helped liberate Holland as an Allied soldier during the Second World War and worked various jobs in Winnipeg until he retired 20 years ago. He's a quiet man. Bright, secret smiles often creep over his face when he speaks.
A few weeks ago, Woodford walked into Siloam Mission and handed the shelter a certified cheque for $40,000. It was his residential school settlement from the Canadian government. The following week at a press conference where Siloam thanked him publicly for his gift, he pulled out another cheque--this one for $10,000--from his own personal savings.
"It's an act of compassion, and it's also an act of forgiveness," said Ron Evans, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. "Residential schools wanted to take the Indian out of the child….The compassion, the kindness, the love—they tried to destroy those, but they obviously weren't destroyed in you."
Why did he do it?
"I just wanted to," Woodford told ChristianWeek. The Canadian government sent him $46,000 as a compensation for his time in residential school. He spent a little on himself, he says, "buying drinks for friends and having a good time." Then he decided it was time to give the rest away.
"He said he wanted to give it to charity," says Woodford's niece, Margaret Dzaman. "So I said, 'Why not Siloam?' Because people here have treated me very well."
Dzaman says she comes to Siloam often, when she needs a cup of coffee, a sandwich or gets lonely in her apartment.
She describes her uncle as a content man: "He just lives plain."
"I just feel happy about it," says Woodford, who also intends to include Siloam in his will. He says he isn't a religious man and doesn't go to church, but he likes to watch American preachers on TV. "I read my Bible each day," he says. "But I don't understand it." He doesn't know if a Bible in Saulteaux exists.
Woodford's gift ranks among the top ten private donations they've ever received, says Siloam CEO John Mohan. He intends to discuss a plan with Woodford to use the money for a special project.
"This is very much like the widow's mite," Mohan says. "This is not the same as a multimillionaire giving a $50,000 gift."
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