This story is part of the Aberdeen Health Foundation’s 40 for 40 anniversary series, marking 40 years of community impact. Over the coming year, we’ll share 40 stories through quotes, photos, programs, and features that highlight the people and partnerships shaping health care in Pictou County. Read the latest story below, and visit our Facebook page to follow along as we celebrate 40 years of care close to home.

 

To Pictou County, with love: Forty years of stewardship and service

New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Wednesday, January 7, 2026, …. “I don’t know what the average person would say if you asked what the Aberdeen Health Foundation means to them. I’d like the county to be proud of it, and to know what we’re doing.” – Harry Munro, Board Member

The Aberdeen Health Foundation was established in 1986 so local fundraising could support health care in Pictou County for generations to come. The idea emerged when local physicians and community members became concerned that government cutbacks would make it difficult to replace aging equipment. Friends helping with a few urgent items soon turned into a broader vision: to build a charitable endowment that could support equipment and innovation over time, without having to return to the community asking for more. An ambitious goal of $5 million was set.

A professional fundraising firm in Toronto told the campaign team that a community of this size would never raise that level of funding for an endowment. Pictou County proved them wrong. By the time the campaign wrapped up in 1995, the community had raised approximately $6.5 million.

Many prominent community members helped drive that success, including Dr. John Hamm, who chaired the Foundation in its early years, and the late Doug Eddy, a long-serving board member, chair, and community volunteer. The late Scott Weeks, who chaired the capital campaign, was another key figure. His wife Audrey remembers how much the work meant to him. Although public speaking wasn’t something he naturally enjoyed, he visited group after group, giving close to 250 speeches. “He said he didn’t know why he was asked,” Audrey says. “But everyone else knew. People had a hard time saying no to him.”

“There was a fantastic response,” recalls Harry Munro, a retired lawyer and the longest-serving member of the Aberdeen Health Foundation’s 16-member Board of Directors, a volunteer role he has held for 34 years. “People really got behind it. What particularly resonated with them was the idea that it was a one-time campaign. They trusted us to do something lasting with their donations.”

That trust became the Foundation’s cornerstone. The funds raised were invested so that only the income earned would be spent, allowing the original endowment to remain intact, grow over time, and generate ongoing support. This long-term stability, strengthened by the community’s continued generosity, has allowed the Aberdeen Health Foundation to steward more than $32 million in donations from the community into over $35 million invested back into local health care, and approximately $3 million every year in enhancements that improve care for patients and families across Pictou County.

From those early days, the Foundation’s role was clearly defined: it would never take the place of government funding, but would help provide the extra – the innovation, comfort, and care that goes beyond the basics. “We were very conscious that health care was government’s responsibility,” Harry says. “Our motto in those days was ‘No beds or bedpans’. We were to be the icing on the cake.”

Stewardship, Then and Now

Through every change in health care, one thing has stayed constant: stewardship.

“You have to remember that this isn’t our money,” Harry says. “It’s the community’s money. We’re trustees of it. We have to act in utmost good faith and use it in ways that people would be proud of. If I meet the children of someone who left us a gift in their will, I want to be proud to tell them what we did with it. I want to be able to show them something real and meaningful.”

“The challenges in health care today are real,” he continues. “Staffing shortages, burnout, and access to care affect every community. We can’t solve those things, but we can do our part. We can make care more compassionate, more connected, and more personal. That’s what the people of Pictou County wanted when they trusted us with their donations. Our job is to keep honouring that trust, one project at a time.”

As Harry Munro once wondered aloud, how many people know what the Aberdeen Health Foundation does? “I’d like people to know what the Foundation is doing,” he says, before adding, “To see that it’s their legacy.”

The Foundation is transparent in its operations and reporting, but its real impact is felt in the stories people tell. Stories of nurses and other health care providers whose extra training allows them to bring specialized care closer to home, of teams who are able to act sooner and with greater accuracy because of advancements in equipment, and of patients and family members who find comfort during long days thanks to improvements in treatment rooms and shared spaces.

None of it comes with a tag that says, “To Pictou County, with love from the Aberdeen Health Foundation.” And if there were such a tag, it might more accurately read, “To Pictou County, with love from Pictou County.” These gifts, made possible by a generous community and entrusted to the Foundation to manage well, have allowed these stories, and others like them, to be told for forty years.

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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.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michelle Ferris
Executive Director
Aberdeen Health Foundation

902-752-7600 ext. 4442
Michelle.Ferris@nshealth.ca