Going to See Gord Downie in Toronto on October 21? The Read This.
I continue to be fascinated by the vast number of grassroots initiatives that have sprung up around Gord Downie’s diagnosis of glioblastoma. Here’s another example from the Courage for Gord campaign:
Whether or not you have tickets, Grace O’Malley’s in Toronto will be the place to be prior to Gord Downie’s Secret Path concert on Friday, October 21.
With support from 94.9 The Rock, the pub will be the location of a music-filled fundraiser and silent auction, featuring a Secret Path-themed hockey jersey, photographer and artists’ prints of Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip, and much more. Also featured will be Niagara musician Anthony Botting opening for Kingston indie rock band Kasador. The fundraiser will provide both ticketholders and those not attending the Gord Downie concert with an opportunity to meet up, make new friends, listen to awesome music, and celebrate decades of love and admiration for The Tragically Hip and Gord Downie.
Organized by fan-fundraising collective Courage For Gord, the event will take place on Friday, October 21, from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Grace O’Malley’s at 14 Duncan St., Toronto. Funds raised will benefit the Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation and the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research.
Also on display that evening will be a specially designed hat in the style of the now iconic feathered hats worn by Downie in the recent Tragically Hip tour. Karyn Ruiz of Lilliput Hats, designer of Downie’s hats, is generously donating two of these keepsakes, which will be auctioned later in October at our website www.courageforgord.org.
In May, The Tragically Hip’s lead singer, Gord Downie, announced he has terminal brain cancer. After an emotional tour across Canada this summer, Downie released a solo project, Secret Path, consisting of an album, a graphic novel, and a movie chronicling the story of a 12-year-old First Nations boy who died in 1966 after running away from a Residential School. For more information, visit www.secretpath.ca.
“We’ve been inspired by Gord and the band, their bravery and selflessness,” says Rob Ferreira, President of Courage For Gord. Ferreira also coordinated over $18,000 in fundraising during the Man Machine Poem tour stop in Toronto this summer. “If there’s anything we can learn from Gord, The Hip and their legacy, it’s to remember to live.”
For further information or interviews, please contact:
Rob Ferreira – President, Courage For Gord
647-290-2570, [email protected]
Wish from the Mother
of the one child who never knew
His one request
face to face and put this behind us
I made a choice
This once a tragedy
Could never be a regret
No expectations
Even though life didn’t quite turn out the way it should .
I was able to make the choice
Returned to Portsmouth harbour when he was three
took him down that path
of his existence
He was a gift to me
I will never be able to put behind what never mattered,
after all
I never knew
it was just him and me
with my only one reason for this
Life is precious
His smile is worth more than anything else
I made many wrong choices
He was never one of those
I was not one to stay
He would be one to understand, one day
if he only knew, I thought
So I tried to tell him about you
You,
Would understand
He may never get that chance
His choice
He will make on his own
So Tragic,
Time
is not on his side either
You know that you are on a path
which may never cross
His
.