{"id":24109,"date":"2019-06-28T11:45:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24109"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:45:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:45:54","slug":"polo-for-heart-celebrates-fortieth-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/polo-for-heart-celebrates-fortieth-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Polo for Heart celebrates fortieth anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scenic Toronto Polo Club was the venue for one of the\nRegion\u2019s swankiest events on Saturday, hosting the annual Polo for Heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raising funds for the Southlake Foundation, horses and humans\nalike reveled in a bright summer\u2019s day to come together for a good cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equestrian enthusiasts from across Southern Ontario who converge\non the grounds annually for a weekend of high-fashion, fine food, and the sport\nof kings are among the area\u2019s elite: though at its core, the main focus of\nattendees and volunteers alike is charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, an incredible $6-million plus has been raised over the\nevent\u2019s 39 years to help fund heart disease and stroke treatment and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helped us do all kinds of innovative work,\u201d said Susan\nMullin, President and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation, the\nbeneficiary of the funds. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple of \u2018world- firsts\u2019 at Southlake,\nthanks to Polo for Heart in part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Regional Police, the Canadian Cowgirls, and internationally\nrenowned polo players entertained a packed house of attendees, donned with the\nmost audacious of hats and dressed to the nines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe money raised at Polo for Heart helps Heart & Stroke\npursue our mission to prevent heart disease and stroke, save lives and promote\nrecovery for everyone across the country,\u201d said Avril Goffredo, CEO Ontario\n& Nunavut, Heart & Stroke.  \u201cWe\nknow there\u2019s still much work to be done because every five minutes, someone in\nCanada is lost to heart disease, stroke and related conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are grateful for the support of Polo For Heart over so many\nyears as they help us fund research and promote awareness, and we\u2019ve thrilled\nto join them to celebrate their 40th anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolo for Heart has been a long-time supporter of Southlake and\nover the years has made a tremendous impact for tens of thousands of patients\nserved through our Regional Cardiac Care Program, the third largest in\nOntario,\u201d said Mullin. \u201cSouthlake serves cardiac patients from York Region to\nas far north as Muskoka.  We simply could\nnot do it without this kind of support that is crucial in helping us keep up\nwith changing technology continue providing leading-edge care. We are excited\nand proud to be part of Polo for Heart once again this year, celebrating their\n40th anniversary event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s big day succeeded Thursday night\u2019s opener, dubbed \u201cPolo Under the Stars\u201d, where\nguests took to the pitch for a gourmet dinner and a pair of international polo\nmatches, all while serenaded by Juno nominee George St. Kitts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday\u2019s festivities also featured a best hat contest judged by CTV\u2019s\nThe Social\u2019s Melissa Grelo, and David Dunkley of David Dunkley Fine Millinery,\nwho is the official milliner of Polo for Heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every seven minutes, someone in Canada dies from heart\ndisease and stroke. An estimated 1.6 million more are living with the\ndevastating effects of these diseases, while nine in ten Canadians have at\nleast one risk factor, such as high blood pressure, obesity, tobacco use, lack of\nphysical activity, and diabetes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 10,000 cardiac patients are treated at Southlake\neach year.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scenic Toronto Polo Club was the venue for one of the Region\u2019s swankiest events on Saturday, hosting the annual Polo for Heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24099,"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":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2019-06-27-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6gR","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 22:43:30","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\/24109","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=24109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}