The Cosmopolitan - ADF Connection

The Cosmopolitan Foundation was founded in 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri and became truly international by chartering a club in Winnipeg in 1927. Quickly spreading across the prairies the Edmonton Cosmopolitan club was chartered in 1930 followed by several more in Alberta and Saskatchewan. There are currently 14 clubs and 300 members in Western Canada including the Edmonton, St. Albert and Sturgeon Valley Clubs.

In 1977, Cosmopolitan International formally adopted Diabetes research as the focus. It was determined that Diabetes research was a cause in need of additional help. In 1984, Cosmopolitan Foundation Canada was chartered and received registered charity status. It allowed the clubs in Western Canada to channel fundraising dollars to a foundation where a board of directors would determine what type of research grants would be the most effective.

With all of our clubs in Western Canada we felt it made sense to align ourselves with a local organization. An initial donation of $10,000 to Dr. Ray Rajotte and the islet transplant program gave us a sense of commitment to diabetes research. After hearing about their great work, we joined forces with ADF in 2001 and have made direct contributions of over $375,000 to cover student research, equipment and building expenses. Locally, the Edmonton, St. Albert and Sturgeon Valley clubs have joined together with two other service clubs to organize Rockn’ August, an annual car show and music festival that has raised an additional $400,000 for ADF to date.

At the fall convention in October 2010, the Foundation voted on another $125,000 ($25,000 per year for five years) to fund studentships at the Alberta Diabetes Institute, a contribution that will provide bright students the opportunity to work in research labs and give them the experience needed to enter graduate studies and fight diabetes as a career. To boot, the three local clubs have also committed to the tune of $10,000 a year for the next five years. This will allow summer students to work with researchers over the four month summer period.

It has been a wonderful association that Cosmopolitan Foundation Canada has had with ADF and with some luck and lots of hard work by extremely talented and dedicated people, perhaps we will soon see and end to this terrible disease.

Rod Randolph,

President, Edmonton Cosmopolitan Club/
Cosmopolitan Foundation Canada board member.