A West Island legend leaves a lasting legacy and a Montreal school honours his memory in the most unexpected place.
The brand new rooftop turf at Summit School doesn’t look like your typical schoolyard because it isn’t. Up on the roof of Summit School in Saint Laurent, students with special needs now have a brand new green space to call their own. But this turf carries more than just a fresh coat of green. It’s been dedicated to Frederick Cassir, the late founder of every McDonald’s franchise in Montreal’s West Island, who passed away last year on McHappy Day of all days
Gail Koury Cassir, Fred’s wife says, “that was the message he gave to his children, live life. And he was the greatest teacher for them and for everybody here. You know what was best about my husband? When he was talking to you, you were the focus.”
Paul Karwatsky is a Communications Advisor at Summit School, he says, “Fred really is someone who’s emblematic of going that extra mile to not only run a business and run it for profit, but to make an impact in his community.” He went on to share that “Fred was actually key in starting McHappy Day.”
McHappy day has always been about giving back, marking the end of a life that was defined by exactly that. Summit School serves more than 650 students living with intellectual disabilities, autism, and other complex needs. For them, this rooftop is more than a place to play. It’s a place to breathe, to move, and to belong. And now it belongs to the memory of Cassir as well.
Michael Cassir, Fred’s son says about his Dad, “Approach the conversation with a steel hand wrapped in a velvet glove. That’s how he used to do it. Stay firm, live, be fair. Be present, Dad was always present. He was always in his stores.”
Catherine is a student at Summit School and loves the skills her job placement at McDonald’s has helped her learn.
She says, “I love working at McDonald’s because I learned skills that I did not learn in school, like in Summit. And I could take those skills and use them outside of Summit and like in the workforce and different jobs.”
Karwatsky shares, “There’s a lot of activity going on at Summit all the time, physical activity. It’s a huge part of therapy. We have occupational therapists on hand. We have physiotherapists on hand. Obviously, a lot of it’s done inside and a lot of it’s done in the schoolyard, but this gives us an extra opportunity to take them outside, which of course is super beneficial.”
The school has left a lasting impact on Catherine who says “I want to be a teacher and I want to work at this campus, like Summit School.”
Karwatsky shares, “Summit abides by Quebec’s core curriculum and we do that well, just like any other special needs school. But the work programming, our research center, art programming, all that stuff that Summit wants to go the extra mile on needs extra funding. So we raise a lot of those funds privately.” He continues, “So we hope in some small way, putting his name on the soccer field will help the community remember what a great man he was.”
