A Record Bequest Will Support Health Through the Arts

New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Friday, March 20, 2026, …. In 2025, the Aberdeen Health Foundation received a $2.4 million unrestricted gift from the estate of Doris Hiltz, the largest single bequest in the Foundation’s 40-year history.

Photo Caption: Doris and Ray Hiltz. In 2025, Doris’s estate left a $2.4 million unrestricted gift to the Aberdeen Health Foundation, the largest bequest in the Foundation’s 40-year history.

Doris Hiltz was a chemist by profession and a musician at heart. Music was not only a personal interest, but something she shared generously. She played violin with the Pictou County Orchestra, served as its treasurer, and continued performing well into later life, including playing with a small group of seniors at community and church events until she was nearly 90. She was also a long-time supporter and director of the Pictou County Music Festival. For Doris, music brought people together and created moments of connection.

Doris’s gift also honours her late husband, Ray Hiltz. Ray worked at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and was active in the Masonic Lodge and Shriners. He was known for his meticulous workmanship, spending countless hours in his workshop building model boats and completing projects for their home and gardens. Together, Doris and Ray lived modestly and thoughtfully, while giving generously to many organizations throughout their lives.

In consultation with the estate’s executor, the Foundation developed an approach that aligns with Doris and Ray’s values. Their gift fuels a focus on preventative population health through therapeutic music and arts initiatives, both in hospital settings and in the community. These initiatives will be recognized as being funded by the Doris & Ray Hiltz Aberdeen Healing Arts (AHA!) Funding.

“We’ve admired the work of Arts & Health Antigonish (AHA!) and how they build community health through creativity,” explains Aberdeen Health Foundation Executive Director Michelle Ferris. “They were the inspiration behind our own ‘AHA!’ acronym. We wanted to build a coordinated approach to music and arts in healing for some time, and this gift allows us to finally bridge that gap. By integrating creative arts initiatives into our care models, we are embracing a proven, evidence-based approach to improving health outcomes and enhancing the well-being of our entire community.”

One example of this type of initiative is the music therapy program at Aberdeen Hospital. “It started as part of the Palliative Care program,” explains former Palliative Care Physician Dr. Anne Kwasnik. “It evolved into a hospital-wide program as people started to recognize the impact. Music is lovely, but music therapy is therapy, and there’s a big difference. People come away feeling more in tune with themselves and better able to understand, at a gut level, what is important to them.”

While music therapy has been available for several years now at Aberdeen Hospital, the opportunities for enhancing and expanding this approach thanks to this gift are truly exciting, with the opportunity to draw on the incredible creative talent that makes Pictou County such a special place.

The AHA! Funding will honour Doris’s appreciation for both science and the arts by supporting approaches to health that consider the whole person. 

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The Aberdeen Health Foundation is the leading charity for enhancing health care in Pictou County. In 2025, the Foundation invested over $3 million to fund medical equipment and enhance health programs at the Aberdeen Hospital and in the community. Your contribution can be the catalyst for even greater change — find out how you can make an impact here.