Toronto - February 28^th 2008

By: Kindah Mardam Bey 

A huge announcement from Josh Groban and the Sunnybrook Foundation was made today regarding the largest donation of its kind in Canada. $8 Million dollars, as a single donation, was given to the Sunnybrook Foundation by Aubrey and Marla Dan for the development of the new facility destined to be completed in 2010. A donation, that Chief of Obstetrics and Genecology Dr. Jennifer Blake called ‘an act of compassion and leadership,' and one might add the comment heroic to this list of accolades as well.  

True heroes are born of adversity and the desire for change, and the Dan's appear to have such a combination. Fifteen years ago Marla & Aubrey Dan had their own precious child and after thinking and feeling all the initial excitement of pregnancy, they found out that Marla was considered ‘high risk.' It was the efforts of the Sunnybrook Women and Babies program that assisted in Marla's labour, and extensive post-care, after only 29 weeks gestation. She explained ‘as a new mother, my first instinct was to take care of my baby, but we knew she was in good hands with the staff at Sunnybrook.'

Josh Groban was on hand today to announce and celebrate the monumental event of charity by the Dans`. Tonight will showcase some phenomenal North American talent as a way to further raise additional money for the construction of the new facility. Groban will be performing at One Night LiveTM, along with Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams, Jann Arden and RyanDan, for the charity concert. With such entertainers as this lending their talent and public personas to events like One Night LiveTM, programs such as the Sunnybrook for Women and Babies will get developed sooner. The new and improved Sunnybrook will include a state of the art natal intensive care unit that has won awards for its construct. As Jennifer Tory, chair of the Sunnybrook foundation stated `it will be the 4,000 babies born every year to Sunnybrook, and their mothers, who are the winners in all of this.` Dr. Jennifer Blake added a sincere `thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket to One Night LiveTM, thank you, thank you very much.`  

Aubrey and Marla Dan decided to invest in future generations, after seeing the Sunnybrook facility fifteen years later without any changes, Marla says `except the facility was more cramped; my heart went out to the Mothers and Children.` It was then they decided to affect world change from a personal level. Both Josh Groban and the Dan's emphasized how important a child's start in life is, Mr. Dan explained that he and his wife are `dedicated to that start in life.`    

When asked how such positive changes can be instigated in today`s society, the Dan's explained that it was imperative that people start thinking of `we` instead of `me` and that if we held the philosophy of `the more you make, the more we can give away, and so many of us need to be appreciative that we are in this great country of Canada, that we need to give back, that way we can all do better. If people in general changed their focus from ‘it's about me' to ‘its about us, we would all be better off'.`Josh Groban added that `If we all work towards change, change can happen. Whatever your contribution is, whether it is large or small, just so long as you participate in making a better future.` Groban has his own foundation, which helps raise money and then funnels that money into a multitude of good causes.

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