{"id":122245,"date":"2025-09-05T16:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122245\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:50:09","slug":"pitching-in-brothers-fund-books-for-nova-scotia-children-in-honour-of-their-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/122245\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching in: Brothers fund books for Nova Scotia children in honour of their mother"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin, Edward, Rita and Adrian Gillis during Christmas dinner on Dec 25, 2012, a few months before Rita died. She passed on March 15, 2013. The brothers are donating $250,000 to the Cape Breton Regional Library over 10 years in her honour.Kevin Gillis\/Kevin Gillis<\/p>\n

The organizers: Kevin, Adrian and Edward Gillis<\/p>\n

The pitch: Donating $250,000<\/p>\n

The cause: James McConnell Memorial Library in Sydney, N.S.<\/p>\n

Edward Gillis was visiting New York last year when he received the results of medical tests from his doctors back home in Ottawa. <\/p>\n

The results confirmed what Mr. Gillis feared; he had stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system. \u201cIt kind of turned things upside down,\u201d Mr. Gillis, 65, recalled. \u201cAll that change in your life makes you start thinking about your own mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also began thinking about legacy and \u201cwhat I would leave behind, if anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Rita Gillis taught for 40 years.Kevin Gillis\/Kevin Gillis<\/p>\n

During the New York trip, Mr. Gillis toured the city\u2019s public library and he was struck by the number of reading rooms dedicated to donors. He thought about his mother, Rita Gillis, a long-time teacher in Sydney, N.S. and everything she had done for so many children. \u201cAnd frankly, for us personally as her sons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Gillis, who died in 2013, taught for 40 years and she loved instructing young children on how to read and write. <\/p>\n

Mr. Gillis reached out to his brothers Kevin and Adrian, who also live in Ontario, and suggested the siblings make a donation to the James McConnell Memorial Library in Sydney in honour of their mother. <\/p>\n

They agreed and pooled together a $250,000 donation \u2014 $25,000 a year for 10 years. Most of the gift will be earmarked for books for five- to 12-year-olds, and the books will be circulated throughout Nova Scotia. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Adrian, Edward and Kevin in an undated photo.Kevin Gillis\/Kevin Gillis<\/p>\n

Shortly after his cancer diagnosis, Mr. Gillis enrolled in a clinical trial for a new treatment, called Car-T, that involves changing the body\u2019s T-cells so they attack the cancer cells. The trial proved remarkably successful and he was in remission within a few months. Mr. Gillis said he feels so good that he leads bicycle tours around Ottawa. \u201cI had lost the ability to walk for a while. I couldn\u2019t really form sentences, couldn\u2019t get thoughts out, but I would say I\u2019m 99.5 per cent back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 6, Mr. Gillis and his brothers will be in Sydney to unveil a reading room in honour of their mom and to announce the Rita E. Gillis Children\u2019s Literacy Fund, which will accept further donations.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe used to say that life is a hard teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterwards. She was always trying to give us the lesson first and the test afterwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Kevin, Edward, Rita and Adrian Gillis during Christmas dinner on Dec 25, 2012,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75,2922],"class_list":["post-122245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-noastack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}