{"id":23058,"date":"2019-02-21T13:15:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23058"},"modified":"2019-02-21T13:15:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T18:15:21","slug":"restaurants-and-young-owen-join-forces-for-heart-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/restaurants-and-young-owen-join-forces-for-heart-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurants \u2013 and young Owen \u2013 join forces for Heart Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is very little the average parent can do to fix a child born with a congenital heart defect, but there\u2019s a lot they can do to make sure those who can have everything they need to do so.
\nThis has been a driving force for Aurora parents Laura and Brian Veloso as they navigate this reality with their son Owen every day, and now, with the help of three local restaurants, the family is once again sharing their story to build awareness and raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation.
\nFebruary is Heart Month and the Heart & Stroke Foundation is in the final stretch of a fundraising campaign that will have a lasting impact on the community.
\nThrough to the end of the month, Swiss Chalet\/Harvey\u2019s at Yonge and Henderson, along with East Side Mario\u2019s and the recently opened Kelseys Roadhouse, both on Bayview Avenue, will be selling $2 Paper Hearts, which will be displayed throughout the restaurants.
\nWhile this is a first for the two Bayview Avenue restaurants, the south Aurora Swiss Chalet\/Harvey\u2019s, and owner Joe Anselmo, has worked with the Velosos to raise over $12,000 for the Heart & Stroke Foundation.
\nOwen was born with a congenital heart defect and wasn\u2019t expected to survive his first five months. After multiple open heart surgeries, he\u2019s now doing well and he, his parents, and his two other siblings, are flourishing.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what this event has created in the community,\u201d says Brian. \u201cIt\u2019s not just an event at restaurants, now it is an event with three restaurants. It is amazing how this initiative has touched other people to want to participate in not only doing something for the community, but doing something specifically for the Heart & Stroke Foundation.\u201d
\nBut it is also a double-edged sword, says Laura.
\n\u201cOn the one hand, we\u2019re just a regular family and Owen was dealt the hand he was dealt; he was born quite ill and we did what you think most families would do \u2013 you pull together and you all have to work together and go into survival mode,\u201d she says. \u201cOn the other hand, it\u2019s very touching because there\u2019s very little I can do as a parent to fix him physically, I really can\u2019t do much of anything, but I can do what I can to make sure the people who can fix him get everything they need.
\n\u201cSomething good has to come from all the challenges that Owen has faced, and I feel if he can inspire people to look around and say, \u2018We need to pull together,\u2019 it is not just about one child, there are so many children and it takes a whole community working together to help raise these kids.\u201d
\nThe Velosos joined representatives of the Heart & Stroke Foundation and the three participating restaurants at Kelseys on Friday afternoon to accept a $500 campaign boost from Recipe Unlimited, the parent company of Swiss Chalet, Kelseys and East Side Mario\u2019s.
\nOwen took a brief break from his bag of M&Ms to accept the cheque on behalf of Heart & Stroke.
\n\u201cWhen we found out about this, we wanted to do something and be a part of it,\u201d said Maureen Hart, Senior Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs, for Recipe Unlimited. \u201cThis is something that really matters, not only in the broad sense around Heart & Stroke and a desire to help, but it is really rooted in the community here with Owen and his family, and people really caring about the community.\u201d
\nTrudy Rudolph, Manager of Community Fundraising, for the local branch of Heart & Stroke agreed.
\n\u201cThis is amazing, and we\u2019re grateful for Joe and his dedication and passion to not only surpass each year\u2019s (fundraising) benchmark, but to invite and encourage participation from other areas of the community,\u201d said Ms. Rudolph. \u201cWe need the community, whether it is in terms of fundraising or in terms of raising awareness, knowing what the signs are of a heart attack or stroke, knowing what to do if you witness somebody that is in crisis. It is a community of survivors and caregivers.\u201d
\nAll of the research they are able to support through events like these go right back to the community through programs, medications and other initiatives, she said, adding that the bigger this \u201ccircle\u201d gets the larger impact they can have on the community.
\nA particular focus for the Foundation this year will be on women\u2019s health. They have identified a large disparity that \u201cwomen are under-researched, under-treated, under-diagnosed and\u2026over-dying\u201d due to heart and stroke-related issues. Existing research on drug therapies, for instance, have often been done on men, she said, and it has been discovered that the drugs in question do not work the same way in women and, in some cases, can create more issues than they solve.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking to close the gap and we\u2019re looking to educate women to be their best advocates as well,\u201d said Ms. Rudolph.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is very little the average parent can do to fix a child born with a congenital heart defect, but there\u2019s a lot they can do to make sure those who can have everything they need to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/2019-02-21-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5ZU","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 16:20:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}