From grief to giving: this cross-country ride remembers Abbey and future Burlington art students
Starting on Friday, Sept. 12, local resident Callum Norris will be cycling from Vancouver, B.C. to Burlington’s Central High School in memory of local artist Abbey Maguire and to raise money to provide scholarships to students pursuing the arts through the Ride for Abbey and Abbey’s Foundation.
Norris, Abbey’s partner, said that they wanted to continue Abbey’s legacy in a way that could touch and impact the local community in the same way that Abbey impacted her friends and family through her art.
“She was a wonderfully talented artist, amongst the other characteristics that made her the individual that she was,” he said. “A significant part of what she loved and what she left for us was the art she did on a day-to-day basis. It wasn’t just important to her, it became important to everyone around her.”
Abbey, who passed away on March 2, 2025 after battling cancer for more than a year, graduated from Central High School and went on to get her Masters in architecture in post-secondary. Before she died, she spoke about how she wanted her money to help students from her high school through scholarships for arts education.
“Abbey excelled in high school and had a lot of good relationships there,’ Matt Maguire, Abbey’s brother, said. “It felt right to have it as the starting point for people looking forward to post-secondary school, and no matter where they want to go, we want to help support them.”
Abbey’s Foundation was founded recently to provide the scholarships to Central High School students and started with some of Abbey’s savings and the contributions of friends and family, but Matt and Norris hope that the new charity will be able to provide support for art students for years to come.
“We wanted to build a platform for the scholarships,” Norris said. “Not just for this pot of money to go into and be used, but for us to have a way that we can have this live on and stay connected to Abbey and for her legacy to be shared not just with family and friends, but with the community.”
Norris expects to spend between 35 and 40 days crossing Canada on his bike, averaging around 100 to 120 kilometres of cycling each day, with friends and family meeting him along the journey, especially as he gets closer to Burlington.
“I think I’m going to have a real connection with Abbey throughout the ride,” Norris said. “It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day and it would be nice to get away from it. I want to get on the bike right now, if I’m honest.”
Norris hopes to raise more than $25,000 for the foundation through the Ride for Abbey to cover the cost of the first scholarships, with a personal goal of $28,000.
Despite the difficulties of losing his best friend and sister earlier this year, Matt said that being able to move forward and work on the Ride for Abbey and Abbey’s Foundation has helped to channel the family’s emotions into something brighter.
“It’s had a positive impact,” he said. “I still have a hard time believing that all of this is real because it’s still fresh, but it’s been a good way to focus positive energy into continuing Abbey’s legacy and help people who are similar to her. The support has been amazing and we hope that we can do some good.”
Matt also stressed the importance of community and how sharing difficult stories and reaching out for help can make a world of difference.
“What Abbey went through was an aggressive form of cancer,” he said. “Part of the reason we’re doing this is because of the disease. So many people are affected by cancer, nearly everyone has a story about going through it with a sibling or a child or a parent. They’re never good stories and they’re always unique, and we want to help connect people with these stories.”
One of the last projects Abbey worked on was documenting and photographing her grandmother’s recipes to turn them into a cookbook, which several of Abbey’s artist friends are now working on. It's hoped the published book will help to raise money for the scholarships.
Norris will be starting his ride from Vancouver, one of Abbey’s favourite places in the country, to her hometown of Burlington on Friday, Sept. 12.