Life in the numbers

Today, a great actor, a great philanthropist and a great man died.

His name was Paul Newman, and he was 83 years old.




After his only son died in 1978 from an accidental overdose of Valium, he established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.

In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The camp serves 13,000 children every year, free of charge.

Paul was passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights. He was famously liberal, and due to his active support of Eugene McCarthy in 1968, he ended up on President Nixon's enemies list. It was one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.

-19 The position he held on Richard Nixon's enemies list.
-50 Major films
-10 Oscar nominations
-3 Oscar wins (Two honorary awards)
-5 BAFTA nominations
-1 BAFTA win
-30 Years of philanthropy
-200 Million raised for charity
-50 Years of marriage to a wonderful woman/actor Joanne Woodward

One of Paul Newman's last on-screen roles was for the 2005 HBO drama Empire Falls.

I was very sick at home when it first aired.

The story, the characters and his performance truly resonated for me.

Good things don't always come from waiting

When I was a little boy, every Halloween was a chance to amass a giant bag of chocolate and candies. However, with a little orange cardboard box in hand, it also was an opportune chance to collect money for UNICEF.




I have always thought that UNICEF is one of the best charitable organizations in the world. Essentially the main focus of Unicef is the safety and well being of children all around the globe.

Take a moment to think about this. Every day, worldwide, approximately 29,000 children die from preventable causes like malaria and measles.

It's just an abstract number, until you consider that every day you could fill every single seat of Jarry Park (The former Montreal Expos stadium) with it’s own dead body.

No matter what your position in society is, we are all very lucky to live in a country of wealth and plenty. Billions of people do not share that fortune.

Please take some time this year to consider a donation to UNICEF.

If you wait until Halloween, over 7,500,000 children will have died by then.