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 The Footprints Dance Project Society of Alberta is a Calgary based, non-profit community organization dedicated to the arts in general, and dance in particular. It came to life though the brilliance and hard work of Founding Artistic Director, Neah Kalcounis. Headquartered in Calgary, our mission is to do everything that we can to ensure children and youth have opportunities to explore and express the creativities inside their hearts and minds. We do everything we can to think of ways to stretch our resources in order to level the performing arts field for the disadvantaged and disabled, to build a caring community, and to democratize participation in the arts.
IN MEMORIUM
It is with great sadness and feelings of loss that Footprints announces the passing of our Benefactor and Founder John, Peter “Squire” Matthews, a long-time Calgarian. Squire died on Monday, January 7, 2008.
Born in Birkenhead Parish, Cheshire, to James and Marion, he was raised in Halifax, West Yorkshire by his grandmother and great-aunt Grace and Clara Stansfield. Prior to WWII (1938-45), he graduated King Edward School naval academy at Whitley, Surrey, where he received his first communion in the school chapel. A Cruiser tank driver with the Royal Armoured Corps, British Middle East Command, he was the only one in his unit to survive Operation Battleaxe in which the promises of the lives of thousands were lost. Burned and captured in Libya on June 15, 1941, he was imprisoned at Camp PG 52 at Chiavari, Italy before spending four years at Stalag VIIIB in Lamsdorf, Germany. During the infamous forced death march across Germany and Poland in the winter and spring of '45, when hundreds of emaciated allied POWs perished in the winter temperatures, he attempted escape by running towards an advancing American military column but was foiled by German field police.
A model citizen with English instincts who contributed to the building of post-war Canada, he immigrated to Canada in 1952 and settled in Calgary. While his manners remained unmistakably British and his long career with the Canadian military and petroleum industries took him throughout Alberta, into Canada's Arctic, and Quebec, he always cherished home life in Calgary spending many hours instructing friends on the proper use of tools, rebuilding antique cars and gardening. He loved reading do-it-yourself and English poetry books at Fish Creek Library on Saturday mornings. A protégé of Alex Munro, the English bred City of Calgary horticulturalist, Squire loved tending his roses, peonies and clematis vines.
An orphan, veteran and sufferer of war related PTSD, after retirement, he devoted himself to helping people struggling with disadvantage. A founder of the National Ad Hoc Committee for the Protection of the Mentally Ill and the Footprints Dance Project, he was Royal Canadian Legion member, a contributor to the arts and Past-Vice-President of the machinery erectors union. His support of Footprints Dance Project helped bring dance to over eight hundred students who otherwise would not have had the opportunity. ThanK You Squire. You are, and will continue to, be missed by us all.
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Grow gorgeously tall with the Footprints kidz.
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Larry Sandul, Denice Zanyk, Roy Freeborn, Thomas David & Dennis Belanger.
