Jamie Marquardt Memorial Fund

Please donate to Project Canoe in loving memory of Jamie Marquardt.

Jamie died at the age of 47 after many years of coping with a malignant melanoma that began in his eye. He grew up in Ottawa, with stays during his childhood in Tanzania. He graduated from Ottawa's Glebe Collegiate where, as a Grade 13 student, he and another student coached the Grade 10 girls' intercollegiate basketball team to an undefeated season. He went on to Carleton University where he earned a Bachelor of Social Work degree and played three seasons with the Carleton Ravens basketball team. From 2003 until his death he was on the staff of the Canadian Mental Health Association in Ottawa where he gave direct support to people struggling with mental illness.

Jamie loved the outdoors. He was physically strong and walked the West Coast Trail, paddled the French and Pickerel Rivers down to Georgian Bay, and the Barron Canyon and Opalescent Lake in Algonquin Park with his CMHA colleagues and friends. He spent happy summers hiking and canoeing at his family's ancestral home in the Madawaska Highlands. In 2005, he revisited Tanzania and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Jamie was a caring, generous, courageous and good-humoured man. He and his partner Shelly have been concerned about the world we are leaving for our children, and especially for their daughter Ila, who was 7 years old when Jamie died. He felt privileged that he could take her into nature and introduce her to its wonders. He would be delighted to know that a memorial fund in his name is helping young people have access to the rich benefits of the natural world.

To date, 96 friends and family members of Jamie have raised over $15,000 to support Project Canoe’s youth in his memory.

Click below to donate to the Jamie Marquardt Memorial Fund.