The Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund began in 1901 when Star Publisher Joseph Atkinson appealed to Star readers to help poor children escape the sweltering heat. Today, children with crippling illnesses, mental and physical handicaps and those from low-income families get a chance to enjoy some summer fun. Last summer, The Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund raised $550,000 to send 25,000 children to 98 day and residential camps. CityMedia newspapers focus their donations primarily on literacy, education, health and wellness and projects that support disadvantaged youth and families. In 2004, more than $2.5 million in cash and in-kind support was provided to local community groups. • The Hamilton Spectator’s Summer Camp Fund sent almost 1,200 children from low-income families to summer camp in 2004. • The Guelph Mercury Kids to Camp Fund enables disadvantaged children to enjoy the benefits of camp. In an effort to raise funds in 2004, the Mercury resurrected Guelph’s historical Thanksgiving Day Races, which had originally launched in the late 1800s and continued until the 1970s. • The Record announced a $300,000 donation to Heartwood Place in Cambridge, a charity committed to addressing housing needs in the Waterloo Region. The former Cambridge Reporter building will be sold to Heartwood to become affordable housing for the region. • The Record was proud to partner with the University of Waterloo as it launched its Building a Talent Trust Fund to increase the concentration of talented people at the university and enhance Waterloo’s ability to attract such talent. • The Hamilton Spectator earned the Canada Post National Literacy Award for Business Leadership in Canada for its support of local literacy programs like the Summer Reading Program with Hamilton Public Libraries in which more than 10,000 children attend reading programs at 32 local libraries during the summer. Metroland properties donated in-kind advertising and promotion totaling more than $2.5 million in 2004. As Metroland expands in Ontario, so too do the number of communities that benefit from its assistance. F or example, the company contributed more than $200,000 in in-kind advertising to community groups in the Niagara Region since the launch of Niagara This Week in April 2004. Metroland supported a broad range of worthwhile causes in 2004 including: • Car Guide magazine ran a charity golf tournament for the Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital Charitable Foundation generating a donation of $25,000 in cash while the Oakville Beaver contributed more than $25,000 in in-kind advertising .  • Metroland’s Toronto Community News plays a leading role in the civic booster campaign Stand Up Scarborough. Stand Up Scarborough’s website is sponsored and maintained by The Mirror. Publisher Betty Carr is the campaign’s Honourary Chairperson. • Celebration of the Arts is a community event created and hosted by Metroland’s York Region Newspaper Group. Now in its fifth year, the event offers aspiring local performers an opportunity to apply for performance bursaries. Since its inception, 45 bursaries have been awarded. 19 TORSTAR 2004 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing CityMedia Group  ” “al i yo ‘J [en Et SS TE gen Ay = De s R “IP IM SM „ a ‘a Ot THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR. Summer Camp Fund