Love and Hearts: TCCF Valentine’s Day Gala

BY: ANESHA PREMRAJ

Love is an emotion that we all feel, and Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate it. The heart is the international symbol of love, and there are children in the Caribbean that have very serious heart issues. Imagine having a baby with a very serious heart issue, but not having the means to go through the surgery, it must be a truly heartbreaking experience.

This is what The Caribbean Children’s Foundation (TCCF) is attempting to help solve. This cause is completely non-profit; there is no payroll for this charity. 100% of the funds raised by this charity goes to helping children in the Caribbean get the help they need. The team is full of volunteers that dedicate their personal time to help ensure that the children of the foundation get specialized medical care as quickly as possible.

On Saturday, February 9^th, TCCF hosted a Valentine’s Day Gala that celebrated love and raised funds for the foundation. The Gala had many fun activities such as a raffle that was full of donated gifts, a quiz about the TCCF that gave away Valentine’s Day chocolate and of course a DJ to dance the night away. This event was full of generous, extremely well-dressed people who were proud to support the cause.

TCCF helps children like Cean Jean, an 8-month-old baby diagnosed with a dysplastic pulmonary valve, severe pulmonary stenosis, moderate pulmonary regurgitation, patent ductus arteriosus, and s/p balloon plasty. These are all very intricate terms for heart conditions. The surgeries needed for these conditions are a pulmonary valve plasty, transannular patch and a PDA ligation. These are all very intricate surgeries, and the surgeries require three different surgeons to do the procedures. TCCF has partnered with The International Children’s Heart Foundation/Babyheart (ICHF), SpineHope, and SickKids Hospital, in order to help provide the equipment, expertise, and treatments that these children need to become healthier, and potentially live long and happy lives.

TCCF would like to thank all of those individuals who attended the Valentine’s Day Gala for coming out showing their support and donating to the foundation. They are proud to have a community that stands behind them with many businesses and organizations that donate to the charity on a regular basis, as well as their numerous media partners spreading the word of their cause.

The foundation would like to recognize their many volunteers who have so willingly dedicated their time to the organization as well as Inspire2Act the youth division of The Caribbean Children Foundation whose aim is to Educate, Engage, and Empower the next generation to connect with their communities and bring the vision and mission of TCCF to attention.

TCCF hosts fundraising events year-round and are always open to donations online on their website www.tccfangels.com. The Toronto Caribbean Newspaper is a friend to the organization and supports the charity, by donating back every month through ad sales purchased in the newspaper. TCCF deserves your support because you are able to see exactly where your money is going. It is a volunteer-run organization, and it is managed and run by reputable, established and trusted professionals. All donations are tax deductible.

The continued efforts of the TCCF is driven by the faith and hope shared by the critically ill children and their families. In eighteen years TCCF has paid for 180 surgeries and they are recognized internationally and through their major partners that include Sick Kids Hospital/Herbie Fund which is the largest pediatric and academic health science center in Canada; The International Children’s Heart Foundation, whose mission is to bring the skills, technology and knowledge to cure and care for children with congenital heart disease in developing nations and Spine Hope, whose goals are to help correct spinal deformities and to provide state of the art treatment for children.