Helping create change

Inaugural UNMET gala in Toronto raises $1.5-million to support one of the city’s largest social-services agencies UNMET GALA IN SUPPORT OF WOODGREEN FOUNDATION, MAY 4, TORONTO

The Royal Ontario Museum on the eve of May 4 was awash in swaths of red silk, a colour employed at many Chinese celebrations to represent prosperity and joy, the room’s flora was decidedly more tropical, with palm fronds and bursting orchids, the sort of specimens one might expect to see in Brazil, a predominantly tropical locale. The cultural/visual mash-up was the brainchild of Krystal Koo Cooper and Fernanda Dovigi, co-chairs of the inaugural UNMET gala. The pair mined their respective heritages for the look of the evening and asked guests to come dressed to the theme Come As You Are. The black-tie dinner, attended by 450 guests, raised an impressive $1.5-million, all in support of WoodGreen Community Services, one of Toronto’s largest social-services agencies, which was founded in 1937. The money will benefit the UNMET Needs fundraising campaign, which launched earlier this year and hopes to raise $25-million. The funds will help address Toronto’s most pressing issues, among them affordable housing, support for vulnerable seniors, the mental health of at-risk youth, food and financial insecurity, and support for women and children fleeing abuse. Brazilian cocktails were served ahead of dinner, which was followed by the traditional Dragon Dance performed by Wushu Project. The Samuel Hall Curley Gallery was packed with tables, and before dinner, which was family-style and by the beloved restaurant Mimi Chinese, Teresa Vasilopoulos, executive director of the WoodGreen Foundation, spoke. The UNMET campaign, she said, was launched “in response to the dramatic increase in demand for social services stemming from the pandemic.” Toronto, she continued, is now at a “pivotal point of change and WoodGreen plays a critical role in helping to address unmet needs.” Among them out supporting: Rogers Communications chair Edward Rogers and his wife Suzanne, who served as presenting sponsors; spouses to the co-chairs Michael Cooper, chair and chief executive of Dream Office REIT and Patrick Dovigi, CEO of GFL Environmental; former Loblaw Companies Ltd. CEO Galen Weston Jr. and his wife Alexandra Weston; E-L Financial chair and CEO Duncan Jackman and his wife Rochelle de Goias-Jackman, who served on the committee; fellow committee members including Jenna Bitove Naumovich, Claire MacNamara, Rana Florida, Vanessa Mulroney and Zoomer Magazine’s top editor and publisher Suzanne Boyd; and of course Anne Babcock, president and CEO of WoodGreen Community Services.