The charitable foundation created by musician David Foster says it will celebrate its 40th year of operation next year in Victoria.
“Plans are already in motion for a very special event in Victoria, where we’ll come together to honour four decades of supporting transplant families across Canada,” chief executive officer Mike Ravenhill said in a statement posted to the David Foster Foundation’s Facebook page.
The foundation provides financial support to Canadian families with children in need of life-saving organ transplants.
Ravenhill said the Victoria event “will be a celebration unlike any we’ve had before and I look forward to sharing more details with you in the months ahead.”
To date, the foundation has assisted upwards of 1,500 families with a variety of non-medical expenses, including travel, accommodation and mortgage assistance.
Foster hosts fundraising galas for the David Foster Foundation across North America each year, many of which have been staged in Victoria.
The foundation’s 25th anniversary gala weekend, held at the Fairmont Empress Hotel and Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in 2012, raised $4.6 million for the charity. It featured Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali, Pamela Anderson and Michael Bublé among the invited guests.
More recently, a star-studded Nov. 3 concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to celebrate Foster’s 73rd birthday netted the charity US$14.8 million, according to Variety.
