Charity and basketball combine for Hospital at Air Canada Centre

April 22, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

TELUS employees came together last Wednesday to host an afternoon of basketball at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, in support of the Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation.

The group of about fifty basketball aficionados raised almost $5,000 in pledges for the opportunity to play on the Toronto Raptors’ home court – living their childhood dreams with all the lights, scoreboards, and buzzers in full effect.

They took to the court for just over an hour, in between pre-game practices for the Raptors and the visiting Charlotte Hornets.

“It’s just a good way for people to raise money while having fun doing it,” said Dionne Malcolm, Manager of Communications at Southlake. “Most of the employees are from the Newmarket or Aurora area, so they understand how important Southlake is to the community.”

The charity event came just a few weeks before the Run or Walk for Southlake, where over one-hundred TELUS employees will be running for colleague Hugh Johnson, currently battling stage-four lung cancer.

Going by the name “Hustle 4 Hugh”, the team is led by Manager of Sales Tom Nemeth, who organized the event at the ACC.

As of press time, Hustle 4 Hugh is among the top five fundraising teams on the Run or Walk website.