A pair of elephants walk through scrub in the dusk light in Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa's North West Province April 19, 2012.Mike Hutchings/Reuters
The donor: Greg Gubitz
The gift: Creating Big Life Foundation Canada
The cause: To stop elephant poaching in East Africa
A few years ago, Greg Gubitz went on a trip to East Africa with his wife and they were taken aback by the natural beauty.
When Mr. Gubitz returned to Toronto, he did some research on the areas they visited and was horrified to learn that elephant poaching had reached crisis levels.
"I just thought: I've got to try to do something because they are killing 40,000 elephants a year to carve tusks into trinkets," recalled Mr. Gubitz, the chief executive of HLS Therapeutics Inc.
He discovered a U.S. charity called Big Life Foundation, which was founded by British photographer Nick Brandt and works to stop poaching in Kenya and Tanzania. Mr. Gubitz talked to him about starting a Canadian branch and launched Big Life Foundation Canada three years ago. The charity has so far raised more than $500,000, which has been used to fund two anti-poaching camps and equip 18 rangers. The U.S. and Canadian foundations now oversee more than two million acres; last year, there was no poaching in the area patrolled by the Canadian foundation's rangers.
Mr. Gubitz has returned to the region several times. "What we've been able to do has been unbelievably personally very rewarding for me," he said.
Paul Waldie