The weather co-operated, thank goodness.
St. Boniface Hospital Foundation hosted our first-ever Rosé Soirée cocktail party – a night for cardiac excellence – September 19 in the majestic St. Boniface Cathedral Ruins beneath a cloudless sky.
It was a beautiful night for an outdoor party, where about 300 guests dressed to the nines mixed and mingled to music by Luminous String Quartet, and were dazzled by aerial acrobats and flexible contortionists courtesy of The Street Circus, among other live entertainment.
Throughout the evening, local chefs and their teammates engaged in friendly competition as party guests voted for their favourite gourmet appetizers that were on offer – a contest won by Harth Mozza & Wine Bar.
Also represented were La Belle Baguette, the Winnipeg Squash Racquet Club, WOW! Catering, Cornerstone Bar & Restaurant, and the St. Boniface Golf Club.
Being first and foremost a night for cardiac excellence, former cardiac patients Earl Barish and Kim Clermont shared their individual stories of survival and recovery with the crowd.
Barish told of his personal decision to leave his vacation in Palm Springs, Florida, and return home to Winnipeg in 2017 to have his heart bypass surgery at St. Boniface Hospital. “It was the right thing to do and the place to be,” he said.
“In hindsight, you want to be at home where you have friends, family, and medical care.”
Clermont was joined on stage by Dr. Michael Yamashita, her former cardiac surgeon, for a conversation with event MC Nicole Dubé from CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.
A silent auction and raffle helped drum up support for excellence in cardiac care and life-saving research at St. Boniface Hospital. Proceeds from the event will help purchase a cutting-edge portable echocardiogram machine, which will allow doctors to quickly analyze the function of a patient’s heart through images in real time.
The Foundation would like to thank those who made Rosé Soirée possible:
Committee chairs Doug Stephen and Louis Trepel, Earl and Cheryl Barish, David and Elena Forgan, Neil and Carol Duboff, Larry Reid, WOW! Hospitality, Tom De Nardi and Piazza De Nardi Fine Wine, Nonsuch Brewing, Breakthru Beverage Group, Nicole Dubé and CTV Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Free Press, Swish Productions, Kim Clermont and Dr. Michael Yamashita.
Fight heart disease. Donate to St. Boniface Hospital’s Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences.