Continue the legacy of Leon J. Aureus Jr.

Leon was admitted to Trillium Hospital in Mississauga on May 5, 2024 with an invasive group A streptococcal bacterial infection detected in his blood. While fighting his infection he developed ulcers in his intestine which caused some blood loss. It was thought to have resolved after some treatment, therefore was planning his return home after 1 week in the hospital.

On the morning of May 14, he was found unresponsive due to the return of the undetected internal bleed. He was rushed to the ICU where they found the internal bleed and successfully stopped it after 2.5 hours in surgery.

Unfortunately the blood loss was too much. He underwent a medical emergency code and time of death was announced just after 4pm. Just minutes after the announcement, his heart miraculously started again. He bravely fought hard to stay with us for over an hour, but sadly lost his battle. He was surrounded by his wife, Adelle, and children, Leon, Angelica and Vanessa at his time of death, who are deeply mourning his loss along with the rest of his family and friends.

To honour Leon's memory and in lieu of flowers, donations to support this fund are appreciated by his family and friends.

"A man's life is not measured in years, but rather through how he lived his life - by his accomplishments and his gifts to others"

Leon used this quote to remember one of his dear friends and mentors, Rev. Father Raul J. Bonoan, the President of Ateneo de Naga University and it is clear that he too lived by these words.

Since 1996, Leon J. Aureus was a proud member of the Ateneo Alumni Association of Canada which for over 20 years rallied the Filipino-Canadian community to raise funds to provide full scholarships for under privileged students to attend the prestigious Ateneo de Naga University in Naga City, Philippines. In recent years, his passion has also been in ensuring that beyond tuition fees, scholars also need to be sustained with food in order to be successful in their studies.

Feed a Scholar Program

For the past years, the Ateneo de Naga University has been able to maintain the percentage of scholars to the college population at more than 23%. However, due to our budget constraints, the university could not provide full scholarship to all the scholars and could not sustain the other needs of our scholars. Most of the scholars came from poor families and their parents cannot afford to sustain other educational expenses such as misc. fees, projects, transportation, and food allowance. Some scholars need living, book, and transportation allowance to earn a degree in Ateneo. There are identified scholars who skip meals during lunch break, which fact resulted to failure to maintain the required Quality Point Index (QPI).

The “Feed a scholar Program” was conceptualized to meet the following objectives:

To address the other needs of the scholars by providing food allowance, a free lunch everyday;

To ensure that the scholars will be able to pursue an Ateneo education and will be able to graduate on time; and

To increase the retention rate of the scholars every year.

FOOD ASSISTANCE

P 31.00/lunch X 6 days = P 186.00 per week

P 186.00 X 4 weeks = P 744.00 per month

P 744.00 X 5 months = P 3,720.00 per semester

P 3,720.00 x 2 semesters = P7,440.00 per year

The total amount of food assistance is

SEVEN THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED FORTY PESOS ONLY (P 7,440.00/$175 CAD)

per scholar per regular school year.

Click here to learn more about the Feed a Scholar program