CREDIT: JOHN SING
From left: Howard Rundle, Jim Good and Peter Devlin pose with the Good Foundation Theatre plaque after the announcement of Good’s generous donation to the Centre for Digital and Performance Arts.

The Good Foundation gifted the Centre for Digital and Performance Arts with its biggest donation yet — a total of $500,000 will be the Foundation's contribution over the next few years.

President of the Foundation, Jim Good, said the intent behind the donation is to give back to the community — a mindset his father had when he started the Good Foundation back in 1974.

“My father fell very fortunate; he didn't come from a family with any money,” he said. “It was always his intent to give back and it's still the intent — it's a way of feeding back into the community and help make the community a little better.”

This is the first official connection Good has made with Fanshawe and thus the theatre space was named Good Foundation Theatre.

“I did work with Fanshawe and Howard Rundle a little bit [before] and we were trying to set up some kind of co-operative adventures,” said Good. “I think that Fanshawe moving to the downtown [area] is a very positive thing for the city.”

“To some extent, this contribution was a bit of a gift to London, Ontario to help it develop its downtown [and] to keep the downtown vital.”

Good's experience of shutting down Western University's drama workshop in the ‘90s contributed to the decision.

“It seemed to me that this was an opportunity where we could open a type of drama workshop in London again; but one that's dedicated to teaching,” he said. “It seemed logical that Fanshawe was the place to do this because they have the technical expertise and the people to deal with all the facets of it.”

The donation will help future generations flowing through the drama sector.

“I hope it'll provide some opportunity for people to gain experience in a good, working theatre,” said Good. “It's a way the learning experience will prepare [students] for working in a professional environment.”

Good said it was a good time to make the donation.

“It just seemed like it was a good time for Fanshawe to be developing this, and it turns out it was a good time in our own planning to make the gift.”

The partnership between the Foundation and the College will not likely continue, but Good said he is happy to have made the donation.

“The Foundation is happy to have enabled Fanshawe to do this and Fanshawe carries the ball at this point,” he said. “I hope we'll continue to monitor the kinds of things that are done there. I'm interested in it, but our goal was establishing that the facility is in place. After that, it's really up to Fanshawe to figure out just how it's going to be used.”

“It's been interesting working with Fanshawe; I have a great respect for the College and for the people that are there,” said Good. “They do work hard and I am hoping that there can be co-operation between the university and Fanshawe [one day].”