Arlene Perly Rae

Arlene Perly Rae was a long-time member of the United Way Board and executive committee, founding the Success by Six program. She is currently a board member of the National Reading Campaign and the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown. She has served on the boards of Sistema, McClelland & Stewart Ltd. and the Stratford Festival, and was a steering committee member for the national Campaign Against Child Poverty. As co-chair of the YWCA’s Elm Centre Capital Campaign, she helped raise $15 million to create 300 permanent housing units for women and women-led families in Toronto, including 50 Indigenous families.

For many years, Perly Rae was the children’s book reviewer for the Toronto Star.  She wrote the award-winning book Everybody’s Favourites: Canadians Talk About Books That Changed Their Lives, and has adapted two operas --The Magic Flute and Petruschka -- for the Royal Conservatory of Music, helping to introduce children to the orchestra.