CP HAS HEART TO AID CHEO AND THE OTTAWA HEART INSTITUTE IN 2017
CP Has Heart, Canadian Pacific’s (CP) community investment program dedicated to enhancing heart health in Canada, will be raising money for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) throughout 2017. Since 2014, CP Has Heart has raised more than $9 million for heart health initiatives across Canada through its sponsorship of the CP Women’s Open LPGA golf tournament, the CP International equestrian show jumping tournament at Spruce Meadows in Calgary and the Canadian Football League. CP Has Heart’s 2017 twin partnerships with CHEO and the Ottawa Heart Institute were appropriately announced during Heart Month on Valentine’s Day.
“CP is excited to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary in the nation’s capital while supporting two world-renowned hospitals by bringing the best LPGA golfers and CFL players together,” said Keith Creel, CP president and CEO. “Through CP’s community investment program, CP Has Heart, the ‘Beautiful Hearts’ campaign will bring crucial support to both CHEO and UOHI this year.”
“CP Has Heart raises money for its charity partners in a variety of ways. For instance, when it comes to CHEO’s association with the CP Women’s Open, CP Has Heart will be matching donations made to CHEO between April 1 and August 27, by up to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for community event partners including grassroots fundraisers,” said Kevin Keohane, CHEO Foundation’s president and CEO. “This will be a tremendous financial contribution in support of our hospital’s cardiac treatment capabilities.”
To make a real difference to these patients, CHEO and CP are embarking on a $1.8 million project to help upgrade CHEO’s Catheterization Lab and Interventional Suite. The redesigned space, specialized equipment and pediatric specific training will provide gentle, more effective care for CHEO’s young cardiac patients. The imaging equipment will reduce these patients’ exposure to radiation, enable less invasive surgical procedures and in some cases avoid surgery altogether.
“This new technology will let CHEO take a massive step forward in the quality of the heart health care we provide to our patients,” said Keohane. “The generosity of CP Has Heart and CP’s people are making this all possible.”
To put CP Has Heart’s CP Women’s Open fundraising into context, this campaign has raised more than a million dollars annually for each of its children’s hospital charity partners since 2014. The 2017 CP Women’s Open is being held August 21-27 at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, and the money collected in affiliation with this event will move CHEO much closer to implementing these crucial upgrades.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute will be helped by CP Has Heart’s fun approach to football and fundraising. During the CFL playoffs, $5,000 will go to the Ottawa Heart Institute for every home team touchdown. When the 2017 Grey Cup takes place at TD Place Stadium on Sunday November 26, 2017, CP Has Heart will donate $10,000 per touchdown. Additional funds will be raised on-site during the Grey Cup Festival leading up to the big game, and CP Has Heart will be supporting the Heart Institute throughout the regular season in partnership with the CFL.
“We can only hope that the 2017 Grey Cup is a high-scoring game like Ottawa’s 2016 victory and the 2017 Super Bowl,” said Jim Orban, the Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation’s president and CEO. “Last year, CP Has Heart’s CFL-based campaign raised $200,000 for the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre’s Mechanical Heart Program in Toronto. So those touchdowns can really add up!”
The money raised by CP Has Heart will help fund patient care, research and the purchase of highly-specialized equipment that will be required for the Heart Institute’s largest expansion in 40 years. Slated to open in just over a year, the new facility will add over 145,000 square feet of stateof-the-art clinical space to the Ottawa Heart Institute. “This expansion will allow us to better serve the cardiac needs of Canadians in Eastern Ontario and Nunavut, plus heart patients referred to us from coast to coast,” said Orban. “With the added space, we will be able to perform an additional 305 major surgeries, 300 ablations and almost 1600 stent procedures a year – boosting the overall clinical capacity by 20 percent.”
All told, CP Has Heart’s financial contributions will be making a big difference to cardiac patients of all ages in Eastern Ontario this year.
“This is a great way for CP, the railway that first connected Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to wish this country a very happy birthday,” said Creel.
You can watch CP’s ‘Beautiful Hearts’ video at cphasheart.ca