Agnes Campbell Macphail (1890-1954) was once described as “the most important woman in public life that Canada has produced in the 20th century.”
The Agnes Macphail Award is an annual award that recognizes an individual(s) from the East York community who has exemplified the causes that Agnes Macphail championed in her long and distinguished career.
Susan is a passionate and driven community leader, actively supporting issues that were important to Agnes Macphail.
Having helped to establish the Thorncliffe Food Collaborative serving over 2,000 in Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park, she continues to collect food and toiletry donations, and rallying community and corporate support. She volunteered with the Out of the Cold Program and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, helping individuals facing homelessness and food insecurity.
She was instrumental in raising over $400,000 in toys and in-kind support for the Leaside Community Toy Drive which provides Christmas gifts to over 6,000 children in the Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park neighbourhoods, and helped raise over $1 million to renovate a local playground.
She rallied a neighbourhood team to support the Fill a Purse for a Sister Campaign, donating necessity-filled purses to social service agencies supporting women, and has worked over the past 11 years with a team of women collecting thousands of dollars for the Terry Fox Foundation.
Susan is co-Chair of the Metrolinx Impact Committee, established to secure community benefits around the Metrolinx train yard project, and she is also a contributing writer to the community publication Leaside Life, providing local news to the community.The Agnes Macphail Award, Toronto.ca