For over 40 years, Ada Slaight (1931–2020) was a dedicated supporter of the ROM. Her lifelong passion for art and culture, her commitment to children and learning, and her generous philanthropy led to the creation of the Ada Slaight School Visits Bursary Fund in 2009, which has enabled tens of thousands of students across Ontario to visit and learn at the Museum.
The ROM is one of Canada’s largest cross-curricular educational institutions and the School Visits Program enables students to discover captivating collections that inspire them to think more critically about the intersecting worlds of art, culture and nature. As an early advocate of the program, Ada Slaight was determined to ensure that ROM learning experiences remain accessible to schools province-wide.
In the 2018-19 school year alone, the Ada Slaight School Visits Bursary Fund enabled 8,000 students to expand worlds and their learning at the ROM. By subsidizing the cost of bus transportation, guided tours of galleries and hands-on learning labs, Ada Slaight helped inspire deeper engagement and critical thinking across subjects that span history, culture, art and science.
The ROM has received hundreds of thank-you letters from teachers and students who have benefited from the Ada Slaight School Visits Bursary Fund. Whether describing their first-ever visit to the Museum, or the excitement they felt exploring the bat cave or holding a meteorite, students and teachers alike consistently express their gratitude for the experiential learning opportunities made possible by this fund.
The ROM is extraordinarily grateful to Ada Slaight for her incredible generosity and long-standing support of the School Visits Program that has ignited a love of learning for so many students across Ontario. Her vision to invest in developing the minds of youth not only made a difference to those students today, but will greatly benefit our society in the future. You can make a donation in Ada's memory to the Ada Slaight School Visits Bursary Fund, with deep appreciation on behalf of the students that will benefit from her legacy for years to come.