Thursday 7 February 2013

CPBI Benefit Ball - A Night at the Carnival

I attended the CPBI Benefit Ball - A Night at the Carnival tonight at the Liberty Grand (a lovely event space).

CPBI Ontario is proud to be hosting its 9th annual Benefit Ball ~ a charity event that raises funds for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). This evening is a wonderfully relaxed night that includes a silent auction, raffle draw, gourment food, meeting old and new friends ~ while supporting a great cause. Since its inception, the Benefit Ball has raised over $500,000 for research and education.

It is mostly pension and insurance providers, consultants and brokers who attend.  It's a fun event to network and run into people I've worked with and met over the years.

I checked out the silent auction stuff and bid on a half hour airplane tour and a night at Deerhurst ... alas, my bids were overbid and I didn't win either of them.  There was also a raffle and the prizes were Toronto Leafs hockey tickets, spa treatments, etc.

Given the theme, there were games scattered around.  Plus there was a bearded lady and a strong man we could get our picture taken with.  Here's me with the strong man ...


The appies were delicious ... jerk chicken wings, beef sliders, mini pizzas, mini corn dogs, chilli fries, cotton candy, etc.  By the time we sat down for the meal, I was full of appies! The meal was a salad, beef tenderloin and shrimp (the tenderloin was delicious) and dessert ... all I ate was the beef tenderloin and a couple bites of dessert.

The guest speaker was Mimi Greenspoon whose son, Lee, was diagnosed with Crohn's at age 15.  He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2009 and died in 2010.  Such a sad but inspiring story.

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