2010 True Patriot Love Foundation gala: Nov. 10

Last year. And now (links added):

True Patriot Love raises funds with military precision
Second annual gala aims to garner $2.4M for war veterans

Rick Hillier, former chief of defence staff, was in Toronto yesterday to promote military fundraiser True Patriot Love, which raised $2.3-million last year. Hillier's Military Families Fund charity received the largest portion.
Photo Credit: Brett Gundlock, National Post, National Post

The push behind Canada's largest military fundraiser began in earnest yesterday, as former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier announced the return of the True Patriot Love Foundation gala.

Last year, on the night before Remembrance Day, 1,700 soldiers, entertainers, elected officials, corporate sponsors and Masters of the Universe squeezed into the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the event's inaugural, raising $2.3-million for veterans and military families -- the most ever in Canada.

The goal for this year's event, again scheduled for Nov. 10, is $2.4-million.

"To be associated with these young men and women in uniform, and to be associated with their families is one of the -- actually, it's the only perk I had as chief of the defence staff -- and it's one of the things I enjoy most in life," Mr. Hillier told a Toronto news conference yesterday.

His charity, the Military Families Fund, received the largest portion of last year's total.

Other recipients included Soldier On, a program that seeks to rehabilitate wounded soldiers through sport, and Wounded Warriors, which works to provide wounded soldiers with segways and raise awareness of posttraumatic stress disorder, among other projects.

Gala founder Shaun Francis kicked off the news conference yesterday by outlining some of the projects funded by last year's gala. The list included sending 18 wounded soldiers to the Vancouver Paralympic Games as torchbearers, as well as sending 40 children with parents currently deployed in Afghanistan to Muskoka Woods camp this summer...

Future gala events are planned for Vancouver and New Brunswick, with another one expected to follow in Montreal.