Ripples in the Pond
Katy's death in 2004 has had the same effect as throwing a stone in a pond and watching the ripples spread over the surface of the pond.
Cupids Against Cancer is now in it's fifth year of raising funds to support children living with cancer and their families. To date we have raised over $60,000.00.
Katy McDonald Youth Award
In the fall of 2003, Katy won the "Most Promising Young Photographer" Award in The Day in the Life of Burlington Photography Challenge. In 2004 that award became the "Katy McDonald Youth Award" in memory of her love of photography. http://www.duncanandwright.ca/gallery.html
Katy McDonald Photography Scholarship
Nelson High School has had a Photography Scholarship in Katy's memory for the last four years.The Cancer Project
“With her family’s permission, PhotoSensitive dedicates The Cancer Project to our friend and colleague June Callwood,” Stawicki, continued. “June initiated our venture Child Poverty: A National Disgrace and collaborated on our first exhibition In Their Eyes which was dedicated to five agencies including The Daily Bread Food Bank and The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation. The Cancer Project is, among other things, our way of honouring her life and her work.”
In offering his support of The Cancer Project, Mayor David Miller of Toronto said, “The City of Toronto is proud to welcome PhotoSensitive’s Cancer Project dedicated to June Callwood to City Hall. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian families, including my own, have been scarred by this terrible disease. We celebrate the courage, the hope and the lives of those living with cancer.”
A grouping of three of Katy's self portraits has been accepted for the show. The Cancer Project will be travelling the country but can be seen in Toronto's City Hall between May 15th and June 15th of 2008. We will be auctioning a framed 16 x 20 B&W of the accepted image.
http://www.photosensitive.com/
Upopolis
On Dec 12th 2007 www.Upopolis.com was launched from McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton. Upopolis is the first secure online network for kids in hospital care. The idea for this came out of two hospital stays.
Early in 2002, Katy's friend, Christina Papaevangelou was hospitalized in intensive care due to Toxic Shock Syndrome. The medical team at McMaster saved her life. Christina and her parents wanted to give something back to the hospital in gratitude. They became involved in fundraising but still wanted to do something more.Later that same year Katy was diagnosed with cancer. She was hospitalized in Toronto's Sick Kids. Being from Burlington, keeping Katy connected to family and friends was an issue because it was a long distance call from the hospital to home. Katy also missed her computer. Her Mom ended up purchasing a laptop that Katy could use by plugging into the phone connection in her room and using a dial-up service.
Katy's experience inspired Christina and her Dad to explore ways to keep kids in care connected. Together they founded The Kids'Health Links Foundation and from there Upopolis grew. McMaster is the first of the hospitals to go online. The goal being to bring Upopolis to all the children's hospitals across Canada. Click on the following links to find out more about this project:
http://www.kidshealthlinks.org/
http://about.telus.com/cgi-bin/media_news_viewer.cgi?news_id=886&mode=2
Family and friends have been involved in many events raising awareness and funds for cancer support and research. Here are just a few of those events...
- Relay For Life in Oakville and Burlington
- CIBC Run FOR The Cure in Burlington
- YMCA Burlington Throwin' The Horns Cancer Benefit Concerts
- The Cure is Knowledge - http://www.myspace.com/skate4cancer