Tycoon Miles Nadal sees his old self, the underdog, in the youth of Regent Park. So he donated $1.55 million to rebuild an after-school space for them.
I am shivering on the edge of a construction site in Cabbagetown, listening to a speech called “Miles from nowhere.”
It’s Miles Nadal’s graduation ruminations, his life story. It starts with him as a young, working-class teenager launching his business career by taking photos of kids at summer camp, and ends here on this blustery day, with him donating $1.55 million to rebuild an after-school space for Regent Park teens.
“I paid $512 for a Nikon FTn camera — my father thought I was insane — on loan from Henry’s pawnshop and converted the bathroom into a darkroom, so my parents had to go downstairs to use the bathroom,” Nadal recalls. He is addressing the knot of family and eager Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club board members gathered outside their clubhouse, which is undergoing a $6-million renovation to lure even more kids away from trouble on the south of Gerrard St.
Source: Toronto Star
