A mother’s generous nature is fueled by gratitude

legacy

Growing up, the Kronier family’s four sisters—Lorraine, Linda, Carolyn and Kim—always saw generosity modeled by their mother, Betty Kronier. She was the one who had juice and cookies ready for the kids on their block, who helped create a Halloween costume for a neighbour’s child who didn’t have one, and who regularly invited guests to join their dinner table at home.

One of Betty’s daughters, Kim Streit, spoke about how her mother’s generous nature was fueled by an overwhelming sense of gratitude. “That sense of gratitude touched everything she did for others,” said Kim.

Even in her passing, the family’s matriarch continued to demonstrate how big her heart was—leaving a legacy gift for a number of local charities, including one for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.

“That sense of gratitude touched everything [mom] did for others.”

— Kim Streit, Betty’s daughter

The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Over the years, the four sisters, together and individually, have continued to support kids’ health care through their contributions to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. And they’re working to pass along those virtues to the next generation of their family as well.

The sisters enlisted their kids’ help in researching different ideas of giving that meant something to them. They entrusted a certain amount of money to them, and then the children went through the exercise of deciding which charitable causes that money could support—which created a lot of conversation around what was important to them.

For the last 29 years, the Kronier family has supported a number of the hospital’s priority areas, including the current Sunny Hill Enhancement Initiative and the new Teck Acute Care Centre. But supporting research and treatment in pediatric oncology is a particular area of importance to them—especially since their mother was a breast cancer survivor.

The values passed on inter-generationally within the Kronier family are still evident to this day, as the family continues to support research in life-saving breakthroughs in pediatric oncology. The sisters all agree that “seeing the work that’s going on in this area has given us a whole new perspective on what’s possible.”