Saputo family donates $10M to St. FX for improved recreational facilities

Amelia and LinoSaputoJr.are donating $10 million to upgrade and expand health and wellness facilities at St. Francis Xavier University, where their son will graduate with a business degree this spring.

It's the single largest donation the Antigonish, N.S., university has received in its 165 years, president Kent MacDonaldsaid on Friday.

The Saputofamily runs an international dairy products company and is headquartered in Montreal. The business tripled its size after it went public in 1997, dominatingmarkets in Canada, the United States, Argentina and Australia. The family ranks among the top 25 richest families in Canada.

MacDonald said the family developed an affection for St. FX during visits to their son.

"They've made it known that they've fallen in love with the university. St. FX is a special place. They've seen what it has done for their remarkable young son, and his friends and people they've met," he said.

"They've seen while most universities are trying to grow, we're doing everything we can to stay small. Amelia and Lino have surprised us with this incredible gift and on behalf of the entire St. FX community, we are so grateful."

The money, which comes from the Saputofamily foundation, will be distributed in five stages over five years, MacDonald said.

The gift will create the Amelia and LinoSaputoCentre for Healthy Living as well as provide better sports facilities for students, faculty and residents of communities in the area.

"We're able ... to be ready to host the Canadian Special Olympics in Antigonish on our campus this summer. It's going to be wonderful to see nearly 1,000athletes from across the country come and join us," he said.

"And our recreational fitness centre is simply too small for the demand of our students so we're going to be increasing that [to] three times the size of our current space."

An auxiliary gym will also be expanded for university and public use and the locker rooms at sports facilities will also get much-needed renovations, he said.

"We're doing these renovations in a five-stage plan. Our commitment is not to borrow any more money, to try to live within our means, to raise money, then build so their flow of funds to the university aligns perfectly to our building schedules."

MacDonaldsaid the improvements will benefit area residents and create jobs for people building them.

"St. FX is not an island. We are there to serve the broader public as well. This is going to be a major investment for northeastern Nova Scotia, not just Antigonish and AntigonishCounty."

The university hosted a sold-out fundraising dinner on Friday night, with the Saputos in attendance. Four hundred tickets were sold at $250 a piece.

Large donations

St. FX has been the recipient of large donations over the past few years.

In 2015, the university received an $8-million private gift from Jeannine Deveau, who graduated in 1944. The schoolcommitted to match $5 million of the gift, bringing the Jeannine Deveau Educational Equity Endowment Scholarship Fund to $13 million.

In October 2016, former prime minister BrianMulroneyannounced the creation ofthe $60-millionMulroneyInstitute of Government at the university.

About $30 million came from the federal government andanother $5 million from the Nova Scotia government, while the rest came from private donors. Some hadcontroversial backgroundsincludingCanadian-British billionaire Victor Dahdaleh the middleman in a massive international bribery scheme and Wafic Said a Syrian-Saudi billionaire and ex-arms broker who contributed a combined $5.5 million to Mulroney's legacy project.