A chance encounter inspires new bursary built on kindness

By John-Paul Bonadonna

Sometimes the right opportunity begins with something as simple as a Date Bite.

For Lena Bidawid (BA ‘01) and her husband, Fadi, a chance encounter with Josianne Marsan, dean of the Odette School of Business, led to a new way to give back — and to help a student build a future through a simple act of kindness.

Lena and Fadi are establishing the Nuts4Dates Kindness Bursary, a three-year, $6,000 bursary that will provide $2,000 annually to an Odette student who exemplifies kindness, empathy and a commitment to making a positive difference in the lives of others.

The first award is scheduled for September 2027.

The story of how the bursary came together is almost as meaningful to the Bidawids as the bursary itself.

It began with a podcast.

Fadi, co-owner of Windsor-based Nuts4Dates, was invited to appear on a Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce podcast. As is customary for the program, the local guest was paired with a local flavour — a Nuts4Dates Date Bite.

Dr. Marsan appeared on the podcast immediately before Fadi and tasted a Date Bite for the first time during their chance meeting. Around the same time, Nuts4Dates donated two boxes of its products to an MBA fundraising event supporting Hats for Healthcare.

Marsan noted the donation and bought an entire box.

“I shared them with Odette faculty and staff. Everyone who tried them agreed they were absolutely delicious,” says Marsan.

A social media post showing Marsan and students enjoying the Date Bites led to Fadi sending the dean a message of thanks.

“One thing led to another,” he recalls.

The connection sparked a conversation about how the Bidawids could give back through the University.

“As we got to know one another, I learned more about their inspiring story and their commitment to giving back,” says Marsan.

“From my very first interaction with them, kindness has been at the heart of everything they do.”

Their conversation with Marsan helped them imagine a bursary that moved beyond traditional measures of academic achievement or financial need.

“We wanted something to do with kindness,” says Fadi.

For Lena, the idea also represented something more personal — a desire to honour her father’s belief in education.

“I wanted to satisfy the dream my dad had for me to further my education, but kind of through something else,” she says.

The bursary will ask applicants to consider a deceptively simple question: What does kindness mean to you when no one’s watching?

For the Bidawids, that question gets to the heart of what they hope the award will recognize.

“Everybody's going through so much adversity and I think it's crucial to realize that empathy, kindness, understanding, patience — all those are things parents teach you,” Lena says.

“But also quite simply, how cool it is to be rewarded for being kind?”

The idea also reflects the philosophy behind Nuts4Dates.

Based in Windsor’s Ford City neighbourhood, the company grew from Fadi’s homemade date-and-nut bites into a business whose products are available through a growing list of retailers. But the Bidawids say their relationships and values remain at the centre of what they do.

They describe the company as “powered by kindness,” extending that principle to the people and businesses with whom they work.

For Fadi, the bursary represents a shift in the kind of philanthropy they want to pursue.

The couple have personal connections to hospice and end-of-life care, having lost parents to illnesses that brought them into contact with those services.

Now they want to invest in beginnings.

Lena describes it as an investment in “possibility and future” — a chance to help someone take a next step.

That sense of possibility also connects the bursary to Lena’s own experience as a University of Windsor graduate.

More than two decades after completing her degree, she is returning to the university not to pursue the path her father once envisioned for her, but to help create an opportunity for someone else.

The Bidawids hope other businesses and individuals will see philanthropy as something they can make part of their own legacy.

“It doesn't have to be monetary,” Lena says.

“Just being a little kinder is a form of giving and it’s literally that simple.”

 

This profile is part of a special series celebrating Alumni Week. Discover events and more at uwindsor.ca/alumni.