Page 55 - An Innovation Spirit ...

Volunteering for
the greater good
Board members are making a world of difference in patients’ lives
By Shelley White
Serving on the board of the
Toronto General & Western
Hospital Foundation (TGWHF)
is a combined effort for long-time
friends Loretta Rogers and Dr.
Bernard Gosevitz.
“We work as a really close team,”
says Dr. Gosevitz, sitting with Ms. the forces of the UHN, the
Rogers in the sun-filled atrium
of her home in Old Forest Hill,
Toronto. “Loretta’s been involved
in philanthropy for a long time,
particularly with schools, so she
puts a different spin on it, and
I’ve got the spin of a primary
physician, as well. So we come up
with ideas that are maybe a little
to the right or to the left, but
maybe that’s good.”
Dr. Gosevitz, Vice-President
and Chief Medical Officer
at Rogers Communications,
recruited Ms. Rogers 10 years
ago to join him on the TGWHF
board, knowing she shared his
interest in cardiac care and
research. Dr. Gosevitz had been
the Rogers family’s physician
since 1974 and treated Ms.
Rogers’s husband – the late
communications magnate Ted
Rogers – for an ongoing heart
condition that plagued him for
years.
Ms. Rogers says she felt
compelled to join the board
because she had always been
impressed with the care her
husband had received as a
patient at the University Health
Network (UHN).
“Ted had quite a few rounds
of surgeries, so you start to get
to know people and see that it’s
a really good place to go,” says
Ms. Rogers. “It’s a very nice,
caring atmosphere. The doctors,
surgeons and nurses – you are
looked after very well, with a
smile.”
Because of their shared interest
in cardiac health, Dr. Gosevitz
and Ms. Rogers have focused
Winter 2016
much of their efforts for the “The thing I really like about
TGWHF board on supporting the PMCC and the Ted Rogers
the innovative work of the Peter initiative is that it’s patient-
Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC) focused, and, to me, that’s the
and the recently launched whole reason we’re here,” says
Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Dr. Gosevitz, who is the only
Research. This cutting-edge community-based physician on
initiative, which will combine the TGWHF board.
Hospital for Sick Children and “For me, it’s been very
the University of Toronto, was rewarding as a physician, and
established in 2014, thanks to I’ve seen the benefit to my
a landmark donation by the patients. It’s catapulting Toronto Under Your Nose: A Book About
Rogers family of $130-million – as a world-leader in heart and
the largest ever single donation vascular disease, and it’s saving
to a health-care institution in lives every day.”
Canada.
When asked what initiatives
“Volunteer she is proud of, Ms. Rogers
board points to the Ted Rogers and
Family Centre of Excellence in
members serve Heart Function, a program that
a major role in specializes in improving clinical
the success of outcomes for patients who have
fundraising… experienced heart failure. “It’s
doing a great deal of good,” she
They source notes.
potential new
donors, make Ms. Rogers and Dr. Gosevitz
are two of 36 members on
direct asks the TGWHF board, which
to potential is comprised of leaders in
supporters medicine, business, media
and philanthropy. Linda
and also Goldsack, chair of the PMCC
open doors Campaign, says that volunteers
to provide are instrumental in providing
opportunities guidance and direction in
for donations.” fundraising efforts.
Linda Goldsack, “Volunteer board members
Chair, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre serve a major role in the
success of fundraising,” says Ms.
Campaign Goldsack. “They source potential
new donors, make direct asks
to potential supporters and
also open doors to provide
opportunities for donations.”
A lot of the donations that have
come through his practice are
grateful patients coming to him
and asking, “What can I do?”,
says Dr. Gosevitz.
“We’ve got a superb foundation
– the people who work there,”
he says. “We can open the doors,
but they know how to finish,
and, at that point, once you’ve
done your contacts and created
an ambiance that may work, it’s,
‘Over to you, guys.’”
Beyond their interest in
health-care philanthropy, Dr.
Gosevitz and Ms. Rogers also
share a passion for protecting the
environment. Dr. Gosevitz is the
Chair of the Canadian Wildlife
Foundation, and, over the
years, he and Ms. Rogers have
teamed up to produce a series
of children’s books through Ms.
Rogers’s organization, Children’s
Books for Charity.
Their latest book is called
Nature’s Gifts, featuring artists
like renowned naturalist painter
Robert Bateman, D.A. Dunford
and Ms. Rogers herself. (“It’s a
story about kids who are forced
to go without technology for
a while,” says Dr. Gosevitz.)
Proceeds from the book will
be split between the Bateman
Foundation and the Canadian
Wildlife Foundation.
But while the two friends
have accomplished a great deal
through their philanthropic
endeavours, Ms. Rogers says
that there is still much work to
be done. What’s ahead for the
TGWHF board? “More money to
do more,” says Ms. Rogers.
Dr. Gosevitz concurs. “One of
the ways Canada is the best in the
world is health care, but you’re
not going to get the funding
through tax dollars; it’s just not
going to be there,” he says. “I
think it’s incumbent on private
industry and on private donors
to step up. And I think we need
to get our foundation out there a
little more and encourage people
to donate. We have world-class
things here, but, being Canadian,
we don’t talk about it.”
“The Americans blow their horn
– Canadians do not,” adds Ms.
Rogers.
She points out that it’s also
important to encourage everyone
to donate, no matter who you are.
“One thing [the foundation] tries
to get across is, we want your
small donations. If you can’t do a
big one, fine. Enough small ones
add up to be a big one,” she says.
“And, well, just think: You may
need it one day.”
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