Alex Bruce leaves $170,000 in bequests to local charities
April 18, 2024, 11:24 am
Kevin Weedmark
Alex Bruce of Moosomin, who passed away last year, left money in his will for both the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation and Moosomin’s swimming pool, as well as the Whitewood Community Health Centre.
A bequest of $100,000 was left for the Health Care Foundation, and $50,000 was left for the pool, while $20,000 was left for the Whitewood Community Health Centre. The bequests came as a surprise to the organizations that received them.
“He left the money to the hospital, I’m guessing, and from talking to him, because all of his brothers and sisters-in-law all went to the hospital in Moosomin,” says Alex’s nephew Ray Bruce. “So that was one of the reasons. The swimming pool, the money he left there was because he always thought everybody should learn how to swim. That was the reason for leaving the money to Moosomin swimming pool—because he thought that everybody should have the opportunity the learn how to swim.
“For Whitewood, he had a stroke about five or six years ago and he ended up at the Whitewood Community Health Centre there and he was treated so good that he felt that he should leave some money to them. So that was the reason—really, they treated him really good there in Whitewood.”
What kind of person was Alex?
“He was a retired farmer, very quiet, a hard worker, and he loved land,” says Ray. “Even when he was on his dying bed he said, ‘I want to buy some more land.’ He loved the land, what it produced and everything else. But he was a very smart man and he loved dealing with financials. He said, ‘If I ever have to come back and do something else with my life, I’d be a financial advisor.’ He loved doing that kind of work. He loved gardening. He was a bachelor and it was nice that he left money to the community like that.
“He always bought tickets for everything that was going on in the community and outside of the community for the hospitals in Saskatoon and Regina and different places. He won some money at the 50/50 fundraiser which they do every year in Leroy, Saskatchewan. For some reason he said, ‘I bought cattle there once and that’s why I continue to buy the tickets from Leroy,’ and he won a fair amount of money there in the 50/50 one year.
“He loved to give and he was just a very kind hearted individual. He would give you the shirt off of his back if you asked him for it.”
Alex Bruce passed away on July 30, 2023.
