St. Nicolas Fundraiser

·      BCBC and SickKids

On 2015, the BCBC started a beautiful tradition to celebrate St. Nicolas in Toronto and raise funds for SickKids Foundation. This is the time of the year when many individuals and corporations bestow their charitable gifts, we are honoured that BCBC members and friends have considered our traditional St Nicolas Fundraiser in their philanthropic plans over the years. 

As a Belgian non profit organization, we consider it’s our duty to raise the light on the amazing work perform at SickKids hospital, named as the number 1 Pediatric Hospital in the world by Newsweek in 2021, and help the future generation to go through the those difficult times.

·     Purpose of the Fundraising

Over the last year, most of the money has been directed to help the research to acquire as much knowledges as we could to fight against COVID19 virus. Even if there are still a long road to get rid of the virus, we can be proud of the worked performed by worldwide researchers, and focus our attention back on other important field of research that have been put aside since 2020. That’s why this year, the BCBC decided to help two labs which focus their research on oncology and cardiology.

·     Background of our two Belgian researchers

The BCBC hosts this fundraiser to support Dr. Luc Mertens and Dr. Matthias Dedobbeleer and the great work they do at the Heart Center and Peter Dirks Lab at SickKids. This initiative will contribute to important advances in child health research.

Read more about Dr. Mertens and Dr. Dedobbeleer here.

Activities organized by the BCBC to support the fundraising

During the whole month of November and until the 6 of December, following Belgium’s motto ‘Strength Through Unity’, the BCBC have teamed up with 3 local Belgian Canadian businesses:

The Belgian Chocolate Shop featuring Barry Callebaut Belgian chocolate
Le Petit Déjeuner
Franglish Gourmet 

In those three businesses, different products like baguettes, waffles and chocolates will be sold and all the benefits will be donated to the fundraising.

On the 18 November, a beer tasting ceremony was organized at Dymon Wine Cellar in Etobicoke to officially open the fundraising platform for donations with special guests Dr. Ari Van Assche, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Professor of International Business and Co-Founder of the International Institute of Economic Diplomacy at HEC Montréal, and H.E. Patrick Van Gheel, Ambassador of Belgium to Canada. During this tasting, guests enjoyed Belgian beers from our two importers and partners PolyBEER and McClelland Premium Imports, as well as some cheese and charcuteries prepared by our food delicacy partner Franglish Gourmet.

On the 6 of December, the closing ceremony will be organized at the Prenub pub  (191 College St, Toronto) with different activities, presentations and a special shuffle to win tickets for the Toronto Raptors 905 game Premier tickets! offered by ArcoInfo.

Come and join us on the 6 of December to celebrate reach our fundraising goal!

Register here.