Galas of the week: CANFAR supports AIDS research, BC Children’s Hospital raises funds for new tech | Canada Voices

CANFAR’s Bloor Street Entertains, Nov. 21, Toronto

On the evening of Nov. 21, The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) hosted the 29th edition of its splashy annual fundraiser, Bloor Street Entertains. The event took over shops and galleries throughout Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood, which hosted fine dining experiences for the night.

An after party at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto followed, with roughly 1,000 guests convening for post-dinner drinks and dancing that lasted well into the night. The festivities raised $1.5-million, which will support CANFAR’s awareness, education and programming initiatives such as community-based HIV testing solutions across Canada – specifically for key populations affected by the virus including African, Caribbean, Black and Indigenous people (Canada saw a 35 per cent increase in new HIV diagnoses from 2022 to 2023).

Co-chairing this year’s event were marketing executive Melissa Campisi, Canada Life and Great-West Lifeco’s David Simmonds and plastic surgeon Trevor M. Born. Among the evening’s attendees were honorary event chairs Sylvia Mantella, Candice Sinclair, Janice Fricker and Michael Liebrock; actor Emily Hampshire; singer Carole Pope; Galen and Alexandra Weston (who were on hosting duty at Holt Renfrew with CANFAR board chair Andrew Pringle); Irie Capital Corporation president Jen McCain and wife Martha Maytham; philanthropic duo Earle and Janice O’Born; and model and socialite Gigi Gorgeous, who hosted the after-party.

BC Children’s Hospital’s Crystal Ball, Nov. 22, Vancouver

BC Children’s Hospital, British Columbia and Yukon’s only hospital dedicated exclusively to the care of children and youth, held its 39th annual Crystal Ball on Nov. 22.

The black-tie fundraiser raised an impressive $6 million, which will be directed toward the purchase of a 3T Research MRI machine for the hospital’s research institute. The machine will not only replace the hospital’s current system, but it will also provide researchers with extraordinarily detailed 3D images.

Dr. Tamara Vanderwal, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and clinical scientist at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, called the new technology a game changer.

“It will allow us to see inside a child’s body with unprecedented clarity,” she said.

“For my own research, we use advanced MRI methods to study how functional connections in the brain are organized in kids. The goal is to make discoveries that change how we diagnose and treat mental health disorders in youth.”

Long-time supporters Irene DeLucchi and Desha Sekhon served as co-chairs of the event. Also in attendance were Lawrence and Sandi Thiessen, donors to the hospital foundation since the late 1980s; president of presenting sponsor Nicola Wealth, Chris Nicola, and his wife, Tea Nicola; philanthropists Hamid and Arya Eshghi; RBC’s regional president Martin Thibodeau; and BC Children’s Hospital Foundation CEO Malcolm Berry.