The Jim Button Community Builder Fund carries on its namesake’s larger-than-life community spirit
By Elizabeth Chorney-Booth • Photography by Jared Sych
Live. Laugh. Love. Repeat. That was the final message Jim Button left for readers on his Gather with Jim blog in 2023, posted the day he passed away at age 59 after a long journey with kidney cancer. Jim may have been known professionally as the co-founder of Village Brewery, but his personal legacy well transcended his work, as he shaped his life through community building, organizing community events, mentorships and, as he liked to say, “collecting” friendships.
Jim didn’t just preach the virtues of living life to the fullest and believing in the people around him — he embodied them.
It’s a legacy that his collection of friends and tight-knit family want to carry on. Shortly after his passing, a cohort of friends and former colleagues, including Dan Evans of Evans Hunt Group creative agency, media personality Dave Kelly, and Jim Popiel, former president of Village Brewery, approached Jim’s wife, Tracey, about setting up the Jim Button Community Builder Fund, to be administered by Calgary Foundation. The endowed Fund comes with the mandate of not only keeping Jim’s name in the public consciousness, but also to continue the spirit that defined his life.
Raised in a military family, Jim found himself constantly moving from place to place as a child. When he settled in Calgary in the early 1990s, he immediately found a sense of belonging and community — something his family wants to help foster for others.
“One of the lessons that Jim always gave to our children was that when you’re in a room, look to see who’s not comfortable, who’s on the outskirts,” Tracey says. “Then work hard to bring them in to make them feel like they are welcome and belong.”
Tracey was adamant that she and her children, Jack and Amanda, be directly involved in the Fund, as stewards of Jim’s memory, and so, eventually, future generations of Buttons can take over the Fund. The family sees an importance in working specifically with organizations that echo Jim’s irrepressible spirit.
“It’s very important to Amanda and I to carry on all of his fantastic characteristics and the ways he gave back to the community,” Jack says. “I’d like to pass it on to my kids one day, absolutely.”
Tracey, who has a background in the non-profit sector, took the lead on the first round of the Fund’s grants, working
with Calgary Foundation staff to find organizations she knew her husband would be excited to be involved with. She landed on Youth Central and Umoja Community Mosaic.
The Button family continues to follow Jim’s cues by helping other Calgarians find the freedom to live, laugh and love and discover their own ways to inspire and build strong local communities.
“One of his favourite quotes was that you die twice: once when you leave your body and also when the last person you love speaks your name,” Amanda says. “Keeping his name part of Calgary’s history is important to us.”
December 2025