Famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli highlighted the Harmony and Hope Gala raising funds for Chai Lifeline Canada to assist families dealing with a childhood illness.

There is perhaps no worse nightmare scenario in life than a child who is born or diagnosed with a serious illness. It is the greatest fear of every parent and nothing, absolutely nothing matters more than securing the care needed to overcome the illness and reaching out to organizations who may be able to help.

Organizations such at Chai Lifeline Canada, who for the past 18 years have been stepping up to provide the much needed and sometimes overlooked programs and services a family in crisis may need. Services such as the mundane, like help getting to doctor appointments and providing hot meals when children are hospitalized, to the extraordinary like medically supervised overnight camps that give children confidence, courage, a sense of normalcy and the life skills they need to fight dreaded illnesses. Chai Lifeline Canada knows that any child’s illness impacts not just the child who is sick, but their entire family and they provide these programs and services free of charge.

Which means fundraising is needed to allow Chai Lifeline Canada to continue to provide these essential services which families rely upon as a beacon of hope, which is why its annual Harmony and Hope Gala held April 9th in Vaughan, Ontario plays such a key role in the community. A lifeline for care all begins with committed volunteers, corporate sponsors and donors making a real difference.

More than 1200 guests attended the 18th Anniversary Harmony and Hope Gala, which honoured Shelly Avital, Silvio De Gasperis and Jack Eisenberger this year as Community Builders. The evening’s Impact Speaker was Sisi Kleiner-Fisman, who represented all Chai families and captivated the room with her own Chai story. In a full circle moment, the Gala welcomed back to the stage performer Cantor Helfgot, who had performed at the very first Gala in 2008.

The evening’s Humanitarian Award honourees were famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and his wife Veronica. After a stirring musical performance, Bocelli ended the evening by prodding the audience to bid on his guitar he would be willing to donate, with the bidding reaching an astounding $150,000.

The Harmony and Hope Event Committee was chaired by Shoshana and Yummy Schachter and comprised passionate volunteers Alana De Gasperis, Alexandra De Gasperis, Toby Feldberg, Samantha and Jeff Gottesman, Goldie Hauer, Julie and Yaakov Kaplan, Francesca and Eugene Profis, Jeff Rubenstein, Elli Schochet, Yonatan Wisebrod, and Michelle Goldstein Zaldin, all of whom share the vision of providing care and compassion to families during dark times.

During turbulent times good people doing good things from the goodness of their hearts can often get lost amongst the clutter of daily noise. But that is never lost on families dealing with a childhood illness, and organizations such as Chai Lifeline Canada, and the staff and volunteers who support the programs and services it provides, are lifelines for care at a most critical time.

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