The Canadian Red Cross in Nova Scotia announced its 2019 Power of Humanity Award honourees. The awards celebrate volunteerism, advocacy, philanthropy, and those whose leadership inspires others to pursue humanitarian goals. Both of this year’s honourees are Dalhousie alumni! They are:

• Dr. Jim Spatz – 2019 Humanitarian Award Recipient
• Mark Saldanha – 2019 Young Humanitarian Award Recipient  

Their stories can be found on the Red Cross website but snippets of both can be read below.

Jim Spatz (MD’74)

Jim Spatz. Source: Candian Red Cross

A respected Halifax business leader, philanthropist and former emergency room physician, Jim Spatz joined his family’s business in 1987 and is currently Executive Chairman of Southwest Properties Ltd.

Jim has made it a priority to give back to his community through support of many Nova Scotian institutions that are involved in education, culture, healthcare, youth and the environment.

He credits his parents, Holocaust survivors who emigrated to Canada in 1950, for instilling values including the importance of giving back to one’s community in meaningful, caring ways in gratitude for the freedom and opportunities Canada presented the Spatz family.

Jim served on the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University from 2001 – 2015 and was Dalhousie’s Board Chair from 2008 – 2014.  He has also volunteered his time on the Premier’s Council on the Economy in 2010, chaired the New Neptune Committee from its inception to the opening of the New Neptune Theatre, and has put himself on the “hot seat” for many charitable events such a Different Stage of Mind for the Mental Health Foundation and the Arthritis Society’s Celebrity Roast.

He supported Dalhousie University with the lead gift that established the Simon and Riva Spatz Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies, and Mount St. Vincent University through the Riva Spatz Women’s Wall of Honour, the garden centerpiece of the Margaret Norrie McCain Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research.   Jim has also supported the IWK Health Centre, QEII Health Sciences Centre, Canadian Red Cross, Neptune Theatre, Citadel Theatre Society and its Spatz Theatre, the Canadian Museum for Immigration at Pier 21, Halifax Public Library, the YMCA and the Atlantic Jewish Council.

Mark Saldanha (BSc’19)

Mark Saldanha. Source: Candian Red Cross

Recently completing his fourth year at Dalhousie University where he is studying neuroscience, Mark Saldanha is founder and president of a not-for-profit, youth-driven organization called Greater Love, which befriends and supports those experiencing homelessness or are otherwise marginalized.

As a teen, Saldanha observed people avoiding a homeless man on Spring Garden Road in Halifax. It reminded him how as a young boy in Bombay, India, he witnessed similar treatment of a leper begging on a street and recalled his mother telling him the man deserved to be treated with respect and love.

Saldanha established Greater Love, whose members in their first year spent more than 1,000 hours walking streets in downtown Halifax, striking up conversations with homeless individuals and offering food, respect and friendship. The food is paid for by group members or is donated. Donations like those from Saint Benedict Parish in Clayton Park have played a pivotal role in the work of Greater Love.

His work has been recognized through a statement in the Nova Scotia legislature and by Halifax Regional Municipality, and he was among My East Coast Experience’s Top 25 Immigrants in the Maritimes for 2018.  Saldanha hopes to be accepted to medical school at Dalhousie and is determined to pursue a career that enables him to serve those who are struggling and bring comfort and hope to those in need.