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It could happen to anyone. At 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 16, Canadian expat music producer Scott Harding jumped into a cab to head home after work. Minutes later, a hit-and-run driver broadsided the cab, shattering his T5 vertebra and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.

Mr. Harding, 44, spent three months in New York's Bellevue Hospital, having surgical operations to reconstruct the vertebra and insert three titanium rods and a metal plate in his back. He is now receiving therapy at Beth Abraham Health Services in the Bronx, with no release date in sight.

Like so many in the United States, he has a green card but no medical insurance, and says he can't even imagine how big the final bill will be. But he has some very determined friends.

In a Kitsilano home last week, 12 glasses of red wine were thrust into the air with a resounding, "To Scotty!"

It was the inaugural Scotty Hard Supper - the first of many private dinners planned for the coming months in Vancouver, New York, Paris and London. They are the brainchild of writer Christopher Mooney, a Vancouver native, who spends most of the year living in Paris.

There have already been several benefit gigs in both New York and Vancouver for Mr. Harding, including a sold-out show at the Commodore Ballroom in April. So far about $100,000 has been raised. The next one, Holy Hardstock!!!, will take place at Christ Church Cathedral on June 13.

Born in Calgary, Mr. Harding moved to West Vancouver as a child. He was a major part of the city's jazz and avant-garde scene in the 1980s, playing guitar with bands such as Rhythm Mission and the Jazzmanian Devils, and establishing a network of friends that remains strong today. After moving to New York in 1989, he went on to produce such acts as Wu-Tang Clan and Crash Test Dummies. He also worked on comedian Chris Rock's Grammy-winning Never Scared album.

"Scotty is a larger-than-life, belligerent, wonderful character," Mr. Mooney said. "He's one of those people who can't help but make lasting friendships."

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr. Harding says he is "overwhelmed" by everyone's efforts. "I don't relish the attention, but it makes me feel that I'm not in this alone."

The music connection is obvious, but dinner-party fundraisers?

"It makes sense because Scotty is really into food," Mr. Mooney said. "He comes back to Vancouver every summer to hang out with us and cook. Last year we roasted a whole lamb together in Bamfield [on Vancouver Island]."

The stoves on this night were under the professional guidance of Adam Pegg and Lucais Syme, two recent graduates of Italian bistro La Buca who are preparing to open their own Kitsilano joint, La Quercia, in July. They took a welcome break from drywall and volunteered their services to prepare a nine-course Italian feast. Hosted by Mr. Mooney's sister Katherine, the dinner was sold to friends at $75 a head.

Though food costs were kept to an impressive $12 a head, the menu was anything but mundane. Live spot prawns were split in half and grilled and were followed by vitello tonnato, tortellini in brodo, risotto, pasta with mussels, a stuffed loin of rabbit and a slow-roasted lamb shoulder. Oils and other condiments came from their own stock and the pair covered half of the food costs themselves as a donation. With a couple of late drop-ins, the profit came to $840.

Wine for the event was donated by Barbara Mills of boutique wine importer That's Life Gourmet. Mr. Mooney is hoping that other food producers, retailers and winemakers will step forward to sponsor future dinners.

Some of the cooks offering their services are amateurs planning to feed their friends. Professionals signed up so far include Bill Grimshaw, executive chef at Shaughnessy Restaurant; Laura Calder of the Food Network's French Food at Home; Julie Marr, owner of JAM Cooking and a former chef at Lumiere; Alton Anfield, a young local chef who will be part of Canada's Olympic kitchen in Beijing; and Bob Blumer of The Surreal Gourmet.

People coming forward to host dinners in their homes include artists and lawyers, filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, Mint Records co-owner and Rodney Graham Band member Kevin Beesley and broadcaster Vicki Gabereau.

"I really want to get some of the bigger-name chefs in town involved," Mr. Mooney says, "and snowball the suppers into as many cities and countries as possible. Scotty is one of the most loved people I know; everyone wants to do something to help."

While he was at Bellevue, his friends moved Mr. Harding's things out of his apartment and found a building that can be easily adapted to accommodate his needs. His business partner has already begun rebuilding their warehouse studio to make it wheelchair accessible.

"Everything costs money - more than I can even begin to imagine," Mr. Harding said. The medical bills alone are staggering: "Someone told me Bellevue costs $3,000 [U.S.] a night, and I was in their ICU for two months. Who knows how much money I owe?"

For now, though, Mr. Harding says he's just focusing on the slow process of recovery. "As part of my therapy I tried to cook linguine with meat sauce recently," he said. "It took me four hours over four days to do it. I realized then that I wasn't going to be leaving rehab and heading back to a normal life."

Anyone interested in hosting, cooking or sponsoring a Scotty Hard Supper should e-mail Christopher Mooney at scottyhardsuppers@gmail.com. Direct donations to the Scotty Hard Trust can be made through http://www.scottyhardtrust.com