Pierre Legault Offerings
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Fondation Foundation Help Generations help kids generationsfoundation.com 514-933-8585 JULY - AUGUST 2017 VOL. XXXl NO 8 THIS HUMANITARIAN ENTREPRENEUR CHANGES LIVES WITH YOUR GOODWILL Pierre Legault OFFERINGS MONTREAL’S LEADING BUYER OF RARE COINS SINCE 1928 WE WILL GIVE YOU TOP DOLLAR FOR ALL YOUR OLD COINS & PAPER MONEY Canada, USA, World, Ancient and Medieval coins Silver, Gold and Platinum wanted in coins, bars or jewellery 1117 Ste. Catherine W, Suite 700, Montreal 514-289-9761 carsleys.comrsleys.com Hurry! Exclusive limited time offer UN JOUR, UN JOUR expo67 50 ans Until August 24 2017 Nanette at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal Enjoy a musical celebration of Expo 67’s BUFFET 50th anniversary with Nanette Workman, and SHOW dancers, musicians and singers. only The show Un jour, un jour is a potpourri of 50 iconic songs * from 1967, including Petit homme by Nanette Workman, Light My Fire by the Doors, Respect by Aretha Franklin, All You Need Is Love by the Beatles, Donne-moi ta bouche $30 by Pierre Lalonde, Comme d’habitude by Claude François, La dernière valse by Mireille Mathieu and much more! Reservations for groups of 12 persons or more at 514-499-5124 or 1-844-400-3938 * The $30 Un jour, un jour lunch buffet and show promotion will be valid until August 24, 2017. Taxes, service and transaction fees are included. The offer is only valid for lunch at Pavillon 67. Programming and dates may change without notice. This offer applies to groups of 12 persons or more. For group reservations of 11 people or fewer, contact Admission Network at 514-790-1245 or 1-855-790-1245. 2 Ann_10x14_Cabaret_UnJourUnJour_AN.indd THE SENIOR TIMES July -1 August 2017 theseniortimes.com 17-07-04 15:33 Renaissance man provides jobs, training, and treasures for us that the founder was Pierre Legault Irwin Block and that this was not the first of his exploits to make the world a better A lot of us complain about the way place. He was instrumental in setting things are in Quebec – poverty, un- up Moisson Montréal, the city’s employment, underemployment, central food bank, which distributes and over-dependency on the state, $81.5 million worth of food annu- or l’état providence. ally to 254 community organizations, Then there are those who take the which then redistribute it. next step and set out to make a real I tracked him down for an interview difference in people’s lives, and one in the offices of the former warehouse such person is Pierre Legault. on Saint-Laurent Blvd, just north of “Pierre who?” you might rightly ask. Jean-Talon, where, as general man- He is hardly a household name but ager, he runs Renaissance. the 63-year-old has made life better I learned that the 63-year-old fa- for thousands of Quebecers. ther of six, and grandfather to eight, I first heard about him indirectly, comes from a middle-class family. because for the past few years I have His father Robert Legault ran a fleet been an almost daily visitor to the of trucks as distribution manager for Renaissance used bookstore and do- La Presse. His mother, Jeanine, was a nation centre located next to where we cosmetics manager at a Jean Coutu in lived, on Decarie Blvd. Laval. He grew up in the St. Vincent For me, this was close to providen- de Paul district of Laval, with three tial – just about every interesting title, sisters, earning a B.A. from Univer- fiction and non-fiction, English and sité de Montréal in psycho-education. French, travel and cookbooks, was for Photo: Irwin Block Pierre Legault heard the call to improve the lives of others. Once Renaissance began to grow and sale there for $3.50. And CDs too, at $2 prosper, he returned to school for an to $6, toys, paintings, and knicknacks. trained and to work for six months, ployment or returned to school. In MBA at McGill. The staff was so polite, so helpful, so at the minimum wage, now $11.25 an that time 11,311 tons of clothing and It was while working with emotion- efficient, the store open seven days a hour. Since he started Renaissance in household goods that might have been ally disturbed children from 1981-84 week, that I figured this could not be a June 1994, the non-profit organiza- dumped in landfill sites were recycled. that he was moved to do something government outfit. tion has found jobs for 3,605 people. And as we know, one person’s junk is about hunger. I learned that the staff is composed After their six months were over, four another person’s treasure. of people ready and willing to be workers in five in 2016-17 found em- Talking to one of the staff, I learned Continued on page 4 Vieillir autrement Philippe Transforming the Ageing Experience Halsman DO YOU QUALIFY FOR FREE TRANSPORTATION / ACCOMPANIMENT TO MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS? • Are you unable to use public transit due to health problems • Do not qualify for adapted transport • Over 50 years of age • Live in NDG, Montreal West or Bailey sector of C.S.L. • Have a low annual income (below $27,000 for individual ASTONISH and $32,000 for couple) For more information, please contact Anne 514-487-1311 ME!JUNE 15 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2017 An exhibition produced by the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, in collaboration with the Philippe Halsman Archive, New York. Curators: Anne Lacoste and Sam Stourdzé Philippe Halsman, Marilyn Monroe, 1959. Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne. Photo : © 2017 Archives Philippe Halsman / Magnum Photos MNBAQ.ORG theseniortimes.com July - August 2017 THE SENIOR TIMES 3 Pierre Legault got his start by creating Harvest Montreal Continued from page 3 to pay to have it dumped!” 1988, and in 1989-90 he got the J.A. Valeurs sells for its share-holder’s profit. “There was a little girl who returned “It was a win-win and then W5 De Sève Foundation interested, which “It is certainly not very ethical to be to the facility after a weekend with her came to interview me!” offered $1 million and a warehouse, highjacking donations from people in parents, who was very upset and cry- That publicity got the ball rolling, but agreed to hold off on setting up Montreal who want to do good with ing. She told me, her mum had sold with a flood of phone calls from Ro- Renaissance for four years. He worked their donations,” he remarked. her bed because there was no money tary Clubs, Centraide, the McConnell as an administrator at Vanier’s Groups that sell donated goods to left for food. It broke my heart. Foundation, and the Bronfman Foun- L’Arche, and in 1993 returned to the Village des Valeurs in Quebec include “I said to myself, it doesn’t make dation offering matching grants. It is idea of starting Renaissance. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada and sense that in Montreal there are these now a pillar of Centraide’s efforts to The concept here is also inspired the Fondation de recherche pour le kids who are going hungry, and yet feed low income families. by Enterprise d’Insertion in France, diabète juvénile, he said. there is all this wasted food.” As far as his motivation, Legault which interested the Quebec govern- Renaissance has a full and part-time He started Moisson Montréal, or says he and his wife, a psychology ment at the time because of its newly staff of 508, and 120 in-training posi- Harvest Montreal, with three pa- graduate from McGill, are both acquired responsibility for manpower tions, plus about 100 volunteers. rishioners of a north-end Catholic idealists who want to contribute to and employability training. Emploi It is now starting to buy surplus church in 1983, first as a volunteer. making the world a better place. Québec now contributes 15 per cent goods, especially clothing, from vari- In 1984 he became involved full- “I stopped going to church when I of Renaissance’s budget. ous not-for-profit agencies. time. At first he was working with no was 12 or 13, but in Europe I ended up The first store was opened in the In the works is “a little project of a revenue at all and three kids to feed, meeting (Canadian Catholic philoso- former warehouse on Saint-Laurent, farm because not everyone functions but his wife, Margaret Anne (Peggy) pher) Jean Vanier in France. I stayed which Renaissance now owns. well in a retail environment. Some peo- Brooks, said she wasn’t worried, at the L’Arche community he founded “We had a rough time for years, ple need to be in contact with nature.” saying, “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll (for people with developmental barely making it,” but the organiza- The organization is shopping find something else.” disabilities) and rediscovered my tion as of today is a huge success, of- around for a property to grow organic “A friend of mine in the U.S. inher- spiritual values.” fering lower prices than Value Village, vegetables and try to finance itself ited some money, and sent me $5,000 When he realized he was “a bit of a which is a U.S. owned for-profit chain. over the next four or five years. – quite a bit of money then, which social entrepreneur,” he and his wife And there is no sales-tax component “It would be nice to have that.” helped us tide things over.” decided they would do what they can.