Founded in 1998 in Stratford, Ontario, The Cook-Rees Memorial Fund For Water Search And Safety was established with the aim of promoting water safety awareness and helping to reduce the significant number of preventable water-related fatalities that occur in Canada every year.

The Fund, a registered charity, was established in memory of brothers Ronald and Richard Rees and their friend Gregory Cook, all of whom perished in a boating incident in July 1998. Following this tragedy, Ronald Rees's partner, Canadian singer/composer Loreena McKennitt, founded The Cook-Rees Memorial Fund For Water Search And Safety with the support and participation of the Cook and Rees families and their friends.

At the time of the incident, McKennitt was in England working on a live recording, and she decided to give the proceeds from its sales to The Cook-Rees Fund. Since that time, sales of the two-CD set, Live In Paris And Toronto, have raised about $3 million for education, research, training, and equipment purchases to benefit water safety causes. For more information about Live In Paris And Toronto click here.

Since its inception, the Fund has granted monies to more than 20 Canadian organizations at local, provincial and national levels (see Funding History). This support is allocated in consultation with an Advisory Committee comprised of several distinguished water safety and search and rescue experts from across Canada.

Looking to the future, The Cook-Rees Fund is committed to supporting a wide variety of water safety initiatives whose common goal is making the water a safer place to work and play.

As Loreena McKennitt notes, "More than 500 water-related fatalities and many more injuries occur in Canada every year. With increased education, research, and public awareness, many such incidents could be prevented. For anyone who has experienced such a tragedy, one of the few consolations is to hope that one can assist in changing things for
the better."