Proceeds to be directed to holistic health research

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Aldo Dominguez began sharing his family's wellness lifestyle in 1979 with the opening of the first Nutrition House store in Scarborough's Morningside Mall.

Today his family is sharing his vision by raising funds for holistic health research through the Aldo Fund.

"We were looking for something to be able to honour him, to be able to keep his legacy alive," said Wayne Parent, Dominguez's brother-in-law and the current president and CEO of Nutrition House.

After Dominguez passed away in January 2004 from cancer, his family wanted to do something to honour his memory. The Aldo Fund was created this past fall and will benefit the Holistic Health Research Foundation of Canada. Parent said they want the fund to be used to give seed money to research projects.

"Our goal is to make it an annual fund, to raise a minimum of $150,000 a year," he said. "Hopefully with customer involvement across the country we can raise more than $150,000."

Information on the fund is available at store checkouts and customers are able to add $2, $5 or $10 to their bill to lend their support. People can also donate online.

Dominguez was a supporter of alternative treatment and holistic care, said Parent, adding his brother-in-law even sought alternatives to chemotherapy in the United States.

"We're really happy to be able to ignite a movement," Parent said. "Everyone has been touched in one way or another by cancer."

Parent, who is married to Dominguez's sister Lilian, said they would like to educate people about alternative treatments so they can have choices.

"Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of research for complementary or alternative treatment," he said.

Dominguez came to Canada with his mother and sister from Argentina in the late 1970s. The family had always followed a lifestyle of wellness so it was a natural fit when he opened a health food store in 1979. "Forward thinking" for the time, said Parent, noting, "in 1979 health food stores were more for hippies and weirdos."

But that wouldn't stop Dominguez.

"He was a bit of a visionary in a lot of ways," Parent said. "He was very driven, very motivated."

He built the first store with his own two hands. He would work on the cabinets in the locker of his apartment building. The Scarborough store was followed by a location at the Eaton Centre and today there are 70 across the country.

For more information, visit www.aldofund.ca.