Riverside dinner a ‘high-flying’ success

The Riverside Foundation for Health Care celebrated its year-long “Care Close to Home” fundraising campaign by hosting an evening of food, dance, and thank yous Saturday night at the Red Dog Inn.
The bird-themed banquet was the Foundation’s way of thanking the district for its support during the campaign, which ended up totalling more than $3.8 million.
“Everyone just came through,” said Joan Allison, chair of the special events committee. “Saturday we actually got two more donations from people who were unable to attend the dinner.
“That kind of generosity is just so overwhelming, and yet that is exactly the kind of response we got from the community from the beginning.
“To understand how big it was Saturday night–to hear John McTaggart announce that we had raised $3.8 million–you had to have been there from the beginning,” Allison added.
McTaggart, who served as chair for the “Care Close to Home” campaign, called up the rest of the committee to official present the cheque to Riverside Health Care Facilities Inc.
The money will be used for the local share of planned renovations at La Verendrye hospital here as well as the recently-completed upgrade of the Emo Health Centre.
“In the early stages of the campaign, we had no idea that we would ever reach this total,” McTaggart noted Tuesday. “Later in the campaign when we got more people on board, and got the support of the municipalities, we began to think that it was possible.
“We were all very optimistic throughout the campaign.”
Although the work was difficult at times, McTaggart stressed he could not have had a better team to work with and was thankful for their help.
“I will be forever grateful to the ‘Care Close to Home’ committee,” he said. “They were truly the ‘dream team’ and they did such a great job.”
While the highlight of Saturday’s dinner certainly was the cheque unveiling, the evening was not without its share of other memorable moments–including a poem sung by members of the special events committee.
Donning dark sunglasses and holding martinis in their hands, the ladies outlined their fundraising activities through song and whistling–though Allison admitted the latter was a bit harder to perform.
“We were supposed to have the women who could whistle up at the front,” she explained. “When it came time for them to perform, they didn’t.
“It wasn’t Broadway but it was still pretty good. We had a blast doing it.”
Foundation executive director Teresa Hazel was very pleased with the evening’s festivities and its overall success.
“Between the corporate-sponsored tables and the silent auction, we managed to raise $17,000 for district health care,” she noted. “We are all very pleased with the success of the evening and are a bit overwhelmed by how generous everyone has been.
“Every year we do this and every year we are taken by how giving the community is,” she added. “This whole thing has been a real . . . hoot!”