Raising funds for a women’s health centre and initiatives that help emerging artists | Canada Voices

Cause for the ’Pause in support of Mature Women’s Health, Oct. 30, Toronto

Women’s health – specifically, menopause – was the focus of a recent midday gathering held Oct. 30 in Toronto. The inaugural Cause for the ’Pause saw a couple of hundred guests out for an informative afternoon which raised $630,000 for the groundbreaking Centre for Mature Women’s Health at Mount Sinai Hospital. Hosted by television personalities Tracy Moore and Cheryl Hickey, the event centred around a panel discussion moderated by Catherine Murray (host of The News Forum and a director of the Sinai Health Foundation Board). It featured Dr. Wendy Wolfman, the inaugural director of the aforementioned centre, Carol Mitchell Chair in Menopause at Sinai Health and an OBGYN professor at the University of Toronto; Dr. Marie Christakis, who works in Sinai Health obstetrics and gynaecology; and Grace Tong, a patient turned advocate. The talk focused on the importance of starting conversations and sharing information about menopause (symptoms, hormone therapy and the effect of menopause on one’s career), and also debunked a number of myths about what women experience as they navigate the change (testing and health risks, among them). There in the room: event sponsors Shanitha Kachan of the Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan Family Foundation and Sylvia Mantella of Mantella Corp.; founders and co-designers of fashion label Smythe, Andrea Lenczner and Christie Smythe; Lina Policaro, general manager of the Policaro Group; Shorefast founder and CEO Zita Cobb; and event co-chairs Maxine Granovsky Gluskin, Suzanne Rogers and Victoria Webster.

Storytellers Ball in support of the Writers’ Trust, Nov. 7, Toronto

The Writers’ Trust of Canada has worked to support Canadian writers for the past 49 or so years, through literary awards (they give out nearly a dozen!), grants and numerous development initiatives for emerging writers. The organization held its annual Storytellers Ball on Nov. 7 at the Park Hyatt, to raise funds to support these varied initiatives. David Leonard, who joined the Writers’ Trust as executive director last year, spoke, as did Marla Lehberg, a Toronto realtor and chair of the Writers’ Trust board (she and her husband, David, sponsored the $25,000 Matt Cohen Award at Writers’ Trust for 10 years). Later, special guest author Sophie Grégoire Trudeau took to the stage to deliver a kind of keynote address. Each table played host to an author; dotting the room were names in the realm of the written word, among them Nita Prose, Carley Fortune and Anthony Oliveira. Very near to me at dinner was bestselling and award-winning author Vincent Lam, who too was seated at the table hosted by event committee member and life and health coach Chris Swail and her husband Jeff Hull, president of real estate investment firm Hullmark. Also there in the room: Harper Collins Canada’s editor-in chief Jennifer Lambert and Harlequin Books CEO Craig Swinwood; Jeopardy champion and CBC host Mattea Roach; Jonathan Godsall, a senior partner with McKinsey & Company and Writers’ Trust board member, and his wife Corrine; Griffin Poetry Prize founder Scott Griffin and his wife, jewellery designer Krystyne; and returning Storytellers Ball co-chairs Lucia Remedios and Amy Burstyn Fritz.