The Donors: Dana and Jared Florence
The Gift: $500,000 and climbing
The Cause: The Hospital for Sick Children and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
The Reason: To finance treatments for children living with neurological disorders.
When Dana Florence gave birth to triplets on Jan. 1, 2008, she and her husband, Jared, knew something was wrong. The babies, born three-and-a-half months early, weighed less than two pounds each and had a host of problems that required months of surgeries and treatments. When the babies were 10 months old, the couple learned that all three had cerebral palsy, an incurable neurological disorder.
“You can imagine, it was beyond devastating for my husband and I,” Ms. Florence, a former teacher, said from the family’s Toronto home.
The Florences threw themselves into finding therapies for the children. They also looked into what kind of research was being done on cerebral palsy in Canada. They discovered very little was happening because of a lack of money. “So we said, ‘Why don’t we raise money? Let’s see what we can do,’ ” said Ms. Florence.
Drawing on Mr. Florence’s long career in event planning, the couple created Three To Be and organized a fundraising gala in Toronto last September with proceeds going to stem-cell research at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and therapy programs at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. The event, called Stems of Hope, netted $500,000 and the Florences are now planning this year’s gala.
The triplets – daughter Taylor and sons Cole and Brody – are now three years old and while they struggle physically, they are “healthy and happy and amazing kids,” Ms. Florence said. “It has been a real roller coaster of emotions. Three To Be has really given us such meaning out of a really devastating situation. I’m hoping that it will create change and I think it will. I really do.”
