Loretta Mary Bennett was born in Bell Island, Newfoundland in 1940 and received her two-year secretarial diploma from Mount St. Bernard in 1958. She later graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a Diploma in Education (1960) and a Bachelor of Education (1973). In between, she completed a Bachelor of Arts from Waterloo Lutheran University (1972) now known as Wilfred Laurier University.

Loretta taught for 35 years in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Ontario, retiring in 1995 and moving to Brampton, Ontario. Since 2000, she has been a donor to Coady Institute receiving a 10 Year Xaverian Patron Award in 2017.

“I became familiar with the Antigonish Movement and the work of Rev. Dr. Moses Coady during my years of study and working in Nova Scotia,” Loretta says. “While taking a summer school course at StFX in the early 1960s, I met a few Coady students. At that time, as I remember, they were young men living in a house on West Street.”

When she joined the Catholic Women’s League of Canada at St. Mary Parish in Brampton, she discovered the CWL National organization supported Coady and that her local council was contributing to that initiative.

“Only one or two of our members had any idea of the work that the Coady does,” she says. “It has given me the opportunity to do a little ‘in-house’ education.”

Loretta has really seen the growth of the Institute over the years.

“My interest peaked when I began reading of the activities of the young women from various countries,” she says.

In her retirement, Loretta has had the opportunity to travel, seeing the need and the potential of people.

“By educating young women, it is possible to give their communities the leadership they need to reach their hopes and potential,” she says. “Contributing to the Coady scholarship fund is the least I can do to help these young women as they work to make their communities a better place.”