On behalf of the young women and men who are currently housed, and who will be housed, in the transitional housing programs run by the Threshold Housing Society in Victoria, we wish to thank the Mischa Weisz Foundation for its generous donation.
Born in 1956 in Barrie, Ontario, Mr. Weisz’s life is more than a Canadian success story. In his 2009 autobiography, I Choose To Live: A Self-made Millionaire Faces Cancer, Mr. Weisz tells the amazing story of his life, from being the son of Holocaust survivors to the breakdown of his first marriage; from being unemployed to his accomplishments in the electronic banking business; and then, finally, his courageous fight with cancer.
Mischa Weisz
His story is inspiring at so many levels. Underpinning his saga is his undaunted will to live and his enormous appetite to live life fully at every turn that expressed itself in his great sense of generosity to family, friends and the wider community.
When Mr. Weisz left his business after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2007, he started the Mischa Weisz Foundation in order to give away his fortune to disadvantaged youth and to cancer-care hospitals. Mr. Weisz died on October 2, 2009. Reflecting his will to live, Mischa’s tombstone reads: “As long as my name is spoken, I will still be alive.”
The Foundation’s donation will go to ensuring that the Threshold Housing Society can carry on its mission to provide long-term transitional housing for Vancouver Island youth at risk of becoming homeless.
Mischa overcame adversity to achieve his goals, and this is precisely the type of story that at-risk youth need to hear. Even more, Mischa gave back to the community in sharing his good fortune that others might embrace the spirit of life that he himself so deeply cherished.
Copies of Mischa’s autobiography will be available in each house to give youth a sense of who Mischa was and why his foundation donated the money. One room in each of Threshold Housing Society’s transitional houses will be dedicated to Mischa Weisz.