Toronto galas honour the page and the stage

Toronto Public Library Foundation’s Biblio Bash, Toronto

The Toronto Public Library Foundation, which raises funds that allow Toronto’s beloved public libraries to continue to prosper as community nerve centres that engage and empower at-risk youth, among others, hosted Biblio Bash, its annual fundraiser, chaired again this year by Victoria Webster. The Toronto Reference Library was the location for the to-do on April 26, and nearly 500 library supporters were in attendance. Cocktails were held between the stacks on the second floor, and later, dinner was served on level one. Forty-three Canadian authors were scattered among the tables; I was a guest of interior designer and event committee member Colette van den Thillart who hosted author Heather O’Neill. The event raised close to $700,000, a sum that will support a plethora of programs, including the literacy program Ready for Reading, Home Library Service, which delivers books to elderly individuals, and After School Newcomer Hubs, geared to students new to Canada. Before dinner, a group of slam poets called The Uncharted took to the stage to perform a piece commissioned for the event that spoke to the opportunities and spaces the library creates – the three men are all instructors working with young people in one of the library’s programs, Poetry Saved Our Lives.

Crow’s Theatre Annual Gala, Toronto

A few nights later, on April 29, at Streetcar Crowsnest, the east-end Toronto home of Crow’s Theatre, a gala was hosted to raise funds for the company and celebrate its 35th anniversary season. It was a sunny Sunday evening and the theatre’s atrium, where cocktails were enjoyed, was flooded with both light and the philanthropists who helped make the theatre’s permanent home, opened in 2017, a reality. Inside Guloien Theatre, the main performance space, dinner was had. Actor Don McKellar was on emcee duties, and honorary chairs Sonja Smits and Seaton McLean, chair of the board Nancy Lockhart and artistic director Chris Abraham all spoke. Later, a big gift by two of this country’s biggest givers was announced: Gary Slaight, CEO and president of Slaight Communications, Inc., and his wife, Donna, will give $100,000 a year for the next five years to support expanded programming and new partnerships between Crow’s and emerging artists and theatre companies. A trio of wonderful performances by Maev Beaty and Graham Abbey, Neema Bickersteth and Sara Farb closed the evening.

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