West Island Community Shares mourns loss of co-founder

These are tough times for staff members of West Island Community Shares.

The co-founder and original executive director of the non-profit organization has died.

Lucie Fournier passed away on Nov. 26.

She helped build the West Island umbrella charity group in 1998 with former MNA Russell Williams.

Many people attribute Fournier’s drive toward helping others in the community to the success of West Island Community Shares today.

The organization helps fund 41 groups, distributing $1.2 million. In 1998, the organization funded eight groups with slightly more than $100,000.

“She was a pioneer. She started the whole thing,” Community Shares president Nada Nasreddine told Global News. “She recruited the right people, people with heart that want to give back.”

Fournier ran West Island Community Shares for five years from 1998 to 2003 but her desire to help the less fortunate permeates today.

“I feel that the values she had and brought to the organization are still the values that Community Shares carries today,” Leanne Bayer, the current executive director, told Global News.

Bayer says Fournier was an inspiration for everyone who currently works at the 20-year-old organization.

“Everybody talks about Lucie. What she did at the start — her vision, her commitment to our community,” Bayer said.

Fournier died at the age of 61.