By Michelle Rowe-Jardine

Like most hospital foundations, West Park Foundation plans a busy calendar of popular annual fundraising events including galas, golf tournaments, and their signature celebrity basketball event, Tournament of Stars. And like the rest of the world, they were forced to pivot in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

All in-person events were put on pause and the Foundation had to start from scratch. They tried to imagine one of their fun, elegant cocktail reception-style events, and how they would go about providing a similarly special experience without attendees ever being in the same room together.

“One concept we were looking at even before COVID was that we wanted to have a bit more focus on the food and we wanted to involve chefs,” says Ashleigh Manzon, West Park Foundation’s Director of Annual Programs and Planned Giving.

They decided to plan out a virtual cooking experience, where a skilled chef would lead people at home through a culinary experience, teaching participants tips and tricks along the way, and together they would enjoy a home-cooked meal. The first iteration took place in June, 2020, and involved a collaboration with the restaurant George.

For the second event, they wanted to step it up and felt a celebrity chef might be a bit of a draw for people, so Manzon says they began talking about renowned chefs they liked and a reoccurring name was Chef Lynn Crawford, the famous TV personality from Food Network programs including Pitchin’ In and Restaurant Makeover, and the author of several cookbooks. They managed to get the esteemed Canadian chef on board and test their theory with their second virtual event in October, 2020, called UNCORK UNTAP UNWIND, which had more than 300 participants.

“You can go out to a restaurant or order food to your door, but the whole idea is ‘what are we offering beyond just that? It’s not that we’re giving you a meal to just reheat at home, so it has to be more about the fact that you are cooking with Chef Lynn, and it’s about cooking together so there’s that sense of community,” Manzon says.

On top of the opportunity to cook an amazing meal alongside a famous chef, the event involves musical entertainment – most recently Divine Brown ­– patient speakers, and has even involved a silent auction.

Pippa Cossette and Bernie McGarva had previously attended several West Park events in person, and when the Foundation pivoted to an online event during the pandemic, Cossette says she was thrilled. “I thought this was such a great opportunity for us to feel connected again to people, and it felt a bit like having a dinner party with friends.”

For McGarva, who was treated at West Park in 2014 following an amputation, he felt even though the format was online, the spirit of the in-person events was very much still there.

“One of the nice things about the West Park events is they always have one of their recent patients as a guest and a speaker, and that becomes the central part of the presentation portion of the evening,” McGarva says.

“They tell their story and it’s a moving story, and everybody comes away with a greater understanding of what West Park does because of the stories that are told at those events.”

Cossette adds that another reason virtual events like this have value, even post-pandemic, is because it helps more people to be involved.

“Some people who want to participate may have their own disabilities to deal with and so the challenge of getting somewhere for these events is then mitigated by the fact that you can do this in your own home.”

The Foundation has held six of these virtual events, and as they look ahead to October, Manzon says depending on restrictions, they may try a hybrid-model event where some participants can cook from home and a smaller group can be in a professional kitchen with Chef Lynn.

“I’m so enthusiastic about the virtual events that I’ve written Joanne Cole [West Park Foundation’s CEO] several e-mails about it saying whatever happens, even if we all get together again for big shindigs, I think there’s a lot of value in these wonderful, gourmet, in-home experiences,” Cossette says.

“An experience like this, I mean you’re actually part of the show as opposed to just attending as a guest and watching someone else do everything – you’re doing things too,” McGarva adds.

Michelle Rowe-Jardine is the Communications Coordinator at West Park Healthcare Centre.