Fired-Up Gala 2024

My name is Roxy Zapala and I am the owner and creative director of Art of Celebrations Event Planning and Design Firm. Our firm has been passionately planning and producing social and corporate events for nearly two decades. On Nov 26th 2019 a very unfortunate incident took place and changed my life forever; my then 21-month-old son, Levi was rushed to SickKids Hospital with third-degree burns to his face, chest, and left arm caused by steaming water from a baby milk warmer. Accidents such as these happen on the daily but no one ever thinks that such tragedy will strike their family... until it does. We, here in Toronto, are so fortunate to have one of the best children’s hospitals in the world the SickKids Hospital.

Levi spent three weeks at SickKids following his accident, during which he underwent three skin grafting surgeries. During the first surgery, his lung collapsed and he lost blood, needing an immediate blood transfusion and spending the next couple of days in ICU. These were some of the most horrifying days of my life. Thankfully SickKids took amazing care of our little guy and made us feel like we were family.
SickKids is truly an incredible facility! But our journey did not end when Levi came out of the hospital. He since underwent four laser surgeries and numerous other scar management procedures. Levi’s journey to recovery is nearly over and his hospital follow-ups are now limited to once every other year and we could not be happier about that! 

Now that our nightmare is over and we can focus back on our daily lives, I have decided to give back to this amazing hospital and I have partnered up with the SickKids Foundation to organize a charity gala called the Fired-Up Gala. Half of the proceeds from the gala will be going to the burn unit at SickKids and the other half will be dedicated to the highest priority needs (unrestricted) at the hospital.