For updates and more information about this year’s city or to RSVP., please visit the Foundation’s Facebook page.

Over the years, support for the annual in-country project among the LDS members of the Czech Republic and Slovakia has steadily increased.  In 2009, for example, more than 110 volunteers traveled from all over the two countries and the United States to Kosice, Slovakia to provide physical and financial support to three different projects.  The annual event is both exciting and satisfying.  Much good is being done.

That said, each project requires volunteers and comes with a price tag.  This is a call for individual support and for financial help to those who have served or are connected to these wonderful countries.  Make plans to join us for the next in-country service project or make a financial contribution.  ALL contributions to the Toronto Foundation are used exclusively to facilitate and fund foundation projects.  The members of the Foundation’s board donate their own time, travel expenses to and from projects, and resources.  Any contribution to the Foundation would be used entirely to fund and facilitate in-country service.  Please consider donating.  You can do so through Paypal or by arranging a monthly debit / contribution by visiting the Foundation’s website www.torontofoundation.org or by mailing a donation to the Toronto Foundation at 175 East 400 South, Suite 900, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111.  Any donation helps.  Our goal is to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 annually for each project.

The Toronto Foundation is a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah that supports grassroots humanitarian and educational projects in the former Czechoslovakia.  Established in March of 2003 by a group of returned LDS missionaries, the Toronto Foundation has funded and sponsored numerous projects in the Czech and Slovak Republics in large part due to the generous tax deductible contributions of its friends and supporters.

Come join us for the 2012 In-Country Service Project this September! For more details visit our Facebook page or contact us at info@torontofoundation.org.

The mission of the Toronto Foundation is to sponsor community-based educational, good will, and humanitarian projects in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

The Foundation embodies the spirit of Wallace F. Toronto, and endeavors to promote the ideals and values that he exemplified.  To learn more about Wallace Toronto, click here.  The foundation offers an exceptional opportunity for friends of the Czech and Slovak people to build new bridges of friendship and understanding.  Please join us by making a tax deductible contribution or becoming involved in one or more of the foundation’s projects.

Born December 9, 1907 in Salt Lake City Utah, Wallace was called to the German Mission.  In 1929 he joined the first elders transferred to open the Czechoslovak Mission under Arthur Gaeth.  When released, Wallace studied at the University of Utah and soon married Martha Sharp.

In 1936 he was called to preside over the Czech Mission.  New cities were opened, and conversions continued.  The Nazi occupation of Czech lands in 1938 and 1939 led to the evacuation of all missionaries.  During the war, Wallace became the director of the Utah Red Cross.

In 1946 Wallace and his family returned to Prague.  With a larger missionary force, the Church expanded even after the February 1948 Communist coup.  Buy by 1950 the missionaries were expelled, and the registration of the Church was cancelled.  Faithful Saints were now left without the opportunity even to hold branch meetings.

At home Wallace taught seminary, served the Young Men’s MIA board, and became executive secretary of the Utah Cancer Society.  Through cryptic letters, he kept in touch with the Saints in Czechoslovakia.  In 1964 President McKay assigned the Torontos to visit the Czech Saints as tourists.  In 1965 he was asked to return alone to meet with the ministry officials.  He did so, but only after he was arrested following his interview on television during the huge national sports festival.  His request for Church recognition was rejected, and he was deported at the German border.  Wallace Toronto remained president of the Czech Mission until his death from cancer on January 10, 1968 in Salt Lake City.

Garr, Arnold K., Cannon, Donald Q., Cowan, Richard O. Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2000.1255-1256.

To find out more about the Toronto Family’s experiences in Czechoslovakia, please click here to read “A Cherry Tree Behind the Iron Curtain”, the Autobiography of Martha Toronto Anderson.

The Wallace F. Toronto Foundation’s logo is a stylized cherry tree.  In classical literature and mythology, the cherry tree symbolizes edification, unity, and shared abundance.

In the 1940′s, when the foundation’s namesake, Wallace F. Toronto, lived in Prague he and his young family lived in a large, inviting home in a quiet corner of the city.  In their yard was a grand cherry tree that, in many ways, was the center of activity not only for the family but for the entire neighborhood.

In addition to being a place for local children to climb and play in the summertime, the family would entertain guests in the shade of that majestic tree.  In post-war times, with fresh fruits and vegetables in short supply, a generous helping of cherries from the Toronto’s tree was offered to visitors that came calling or to neighbors that happened to pass by.  In later years, Mrs. Toronto recalled, “that lovely cherry tree held a lot of happy memories, and to us it symbolized home and a place of refuge.”  To read about the Toronto families’ experiences in Czechoslovakia in Martha Toronto’s autobiography titled “A Cherry Tree Behind the Iron Curtain”, click here.

The cherry tree provided fruit in a small but substantial way for many.  In the same way, the Wallace F. Toronto Foundation works in small but meaningful ways to contribute to community-based educational, goodwill, and humanitarian projects in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

For updates and more information about this year’s city or to RSVP., please visit the Foundation’s Facebook page.

Over the years, support for the annual in-country project among the LDS members of the Czech Republic and Slovakia has steadily increased.  In 2009, for example, more than 110 volunteers traveled from all over the two countries and the United States to Kosice, Slovakia to provide physical and financial support to three different projects.  The annual event is both exciting and satisfying.  Much good is being done.

That said, each project requires volunteers and comes with a price tag.  This is a call for individual support and for financial help to those who have served or are connected to these wonderful countries.  Make plans to join us for the next in-country service project or make a financial contribution.  ALL contributions to the Toronto Foundation are used exclusively to facilitate and fund foundation projects.  The members of the Foundation’s board donate their own time, travel expenses to and from projects, and resources.  Any contribution to the Foundation would be used entirely to fund and facilitate in-country service.  Please consider donating.  You can do so through Paypal or by arranging a monthly debit / contribution by visiting the Foundation’s website www.torontofoundation.org or by mailing a donation to the Toronto Foundation at 175 East 400 South, Suite 900, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111.  Any donation helps.  Our goal is to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 annually for each project.

The Toronto Foundation is a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah that supports grassroots humanitarian and educational projects in the former Czechoslovakia.  Established in March of 2003 by a group of returned LDS missionaries, the Toronto Foundation has funded and sponsored numerous projects in the Czech and Slovak Republics in large part due to the generous tax deductible contributions of its friends and supporters.

Come join us for the 2012 In-Country Service Project this September! For more details visit our Facebook page or contact us at info@torontofoundation.org.

For more information about  Caritas Czech Republic, visit their website www.charita.cz/

On the third weekend in September 2009, Toronto Foundation supporters and more than 110 volunteers gathered for two days in Kosice, Slovakia to provide physical and financial assistance to Slovak based Pro Futura, ETP Slovensko, and a local Kosice elementary school.  Toronto volunteers helped gather and prepare essential needs packets for low income families, cleaned and painted at a local elementary school, and helped build row houses at a Roma settlement just outside of Kosice.  The Toronto Foundation’s Slovak based partners in this year’s annual service project, Pro Futura and ETP Slovensko, are both non-profit organizations committed to improving support, help, and care for low income and Roma families throughout Eastern Slovakia.  In particular, these organizations provide physical, financial, commodities, and housing assistance to hundreds of families in need.  Toronto supporters and volunteers donated financial assistance, building supplies, commodities, and hundreds of hours of volunteer work to each of this year’s in-country partners.

For more information about the Klicek Foundation, visit the group’s website at www.klicek.org.

The St. Lukáš Hospice, the St. Václav Charity House for Seniors, and the St. Alžbeta Charity House for Seniors are all located in the Ostrava area. They are managed by Caritas (Czech Catholic Charities), the Toronto Foundation’s partner for this year’s annual project.  More information about the St. Lukáš Hospice in Ostrava, Czech Republic can be found at www.ostrava.caritas.cz/.

Mrs. Vera Pražáková, director of the St. Luke Hospice, thanked the volunteers at a brief reception following the project saying, “We thank the Toronto Foundation for contributing not only financially, but through the volunteer service of its members.  These types of partnerships make our community a stronger and better place.”

Volunteers also enjoyed dinner and a program on Friday evening, September 21, 2007.  The program included remarks by Judith Richards, daughter of the late Wallace Toronto.

The Toronto Foundation is grateful for the many volunteers and supporters who gave their time and resources to this year’s project.  The Foundation is particularly indebted to Ms. Hana Václavová who served as the project’s director.

Items, services, & resources donated by the Toronto Foundation include:

* Dinner, breakfast, & lunch for all who participated
* One night of accomodations for those traveling from out of town
* Tools used for the yard work
* The rental of a truck and garbage bins for debris
* Funds donated to Caritas  for needed medical equipment