That venture soon evolved into the annual Heart Month Canvass, and has since raised millions of dollars for heart and stroke research over the past 70 years.
But things are different in 2021. Door-to-door canvassing isn’t a thing in the COVID-19 era, but that doesn’t mean research and development of treatment for heart disease and strokes has stopped or even let up.
That’s why Heart & Stroke — the national body leading the fight against the debilitating conditions — has pushed their fundraising efforts for February’s Heart Month into the virtual arena.
“For nearly 70 years, dedicated volunteers in communities large and small across Canada have continued this tradition and now the Canvass has gone completely virtual to meet today’s needs,” said Doug Roth, CEO of Heart & Stroke in a press release.
“Pivoting to in-person fundraising events to go online and enhancing the digital experience is only one of the ways Heart & Stroke has responded to the challenging environment. For years we have focused on innovating to fund our mission, and in this climate it’s more critical than ever to look for new ways to collaborate and create partnerships to accelerate change.”
Anyone interested in throwing their weight behind the canvass can do so by visiting their fundraising and donation page by clicking right here.
The page includes information on how to become a virtual canvasser as well as plenty of tips and tricks on how to maximize your success. Or, you can simple click the donate button at the top of the page to make a direct donation yourself.
And also know that whatever you raise or give, you’ll be donating more than just your own time and cash — Canadian Pacific has announced that it will be tripling the donations through the month of February, up to $100,000.
Heart and Stroke has been leading advances in heart and brain health for more than 60 years, leading to advancements in treatment and care that have save and changed millions of lives.
That’s on top of their community presence — in the last year alone Heart & Stroke instructors trained more than 345,000 health care professionals across Canada to respond to cardiac emergencies and helped train 229,000 everyday Canadians in basic CPR and first aid.
Even with that success, Heart & Stroke’s work must continue.
Heart disease, stroke and related conditions take one life every five minutes in Canada. An estimated 1.6 million more are living with various disease’s effects.
For more information on Heart & Stroke, including warning signs and other information, as well as how to learn CPR, visit www.heartandstroke.ca.
