{"id":7192,"date":"2014-06-25T22:44:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T02:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7192"},"modified":"2014-07-16T18:25:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T22:25:22","slug":"hundreds-mark-polo-for-hearts-35th-season-raising-180000-for-heart-stroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hundreds-mark-polo-for-hearts-35th-season-raising-180000-for-heart-stroke\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds mark Polo for Heart\u2019s 35th season, raising $180,000 for Heart & Stroke"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hundreds of people gathered under sunny skies at the Toronto Polo Club in Richmond Hill for the 35th annual Polo for Heart fundraiser last weekend.
\nOver three days, spectators enjoyed food and refreshments and, of course, were treated to a display of one of the finest games in polo.<\/p>\n

This year the event raised $180,000 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Southlake Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to Polo for Heart for the generous support,\u201d said Avril McAllister, Heart and Stroke Foundation vice-president of community engagement. \u201cThis is the 35th year and they have raised over $5 million for heart and stroke research, so without organizations like this contributing to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, we wouldn\u2019t be able to do the lifesaving work that we do. We really appreciate their ongoing support.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAllister said over 350,000 Canadians are living with the after effects of heart disease and strokes and said the funds raised this year will be designated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian partnership for stroke recovery.<\/p>\n

Joe Newton, 66, is a stroke survivor whose recovery has benefited greatly from the type of research funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Polo for Heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately I was able to recover most of the major motor muscles through research and therapy, which also obviously recovered by ability to speak and my ability to eat,\u201d he said. \u201cI was on a pureed diet for a month and a half. Basically I\u2019m very appreciative of the research and the funding that the Heart and Stroke Foundation put into research for stroke recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through plenty of rehabilitation and therapy, Newton has made an incredible recovery 15 years later. <\/p>\n

He has since retired and taken up painting with watercolours, something his neurologist said has had a positive impact on his recovery.<\/p>\n

Also back as Honourary Chair this year was Canadian broadcasting icon, Lloyd Robertson, who championed the event for all it has done for the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that this is a very important cause, because people who have strokes, many of them can recover with the proper treatment, with therapy and medication,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo much has been done with research in this area over the last several years and the $5 million raised over the last several years with Polo for Heart at this event has gone straight into that research to make things better for people almost automatically.\u201d
\nRobertson said he got involved with Polo for Heart after his brother suffered two strokes, which eventually took his life.<\/p>\n

He added there is still a long way to go in research, but events like Polo for Heart have done wonders in creating awareness and funding research. The event was even attended by some very high-ranking polo players, including Canada\u2019s Fred Mannix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great event, because polo is not something everybody plays, but it\u2019s great to watch,\u201d he said. \u201cI myself have been a rider for years and not with polo ponies, I\u2019ve never tried to play, because you have to know what you\u2019re doing out there, but it\u2019s great to come out for a day like this and be a part of this kind of event.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people gathered under sunny skies at the Toronto Polo Club in Richmond Hill for the 35th annual Polo for Heart fundraiser last weekend.
\nOver three days, spectators enjoyed food and refreshments and, of course, were treated to a display of one of the finest games in polo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7132,"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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-06-26-08.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1S0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 06:29:38","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\/7192","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=7192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}