By Kara Peters Unrau
Published June 2024
On April 6th, we celebrated the 35th Mayors’ Dinner in Marshall Hall at Bingemans. With over 830 guests, the room was bubbling with energy. The subtle lights and a full house of people in conversation enhanced the warmth of the evening. It is always heartening to see so many longtime supporters of The Mayors’ Dinner who each year commit to participating in this community building fundraising event.
This year we continued our exploration of social issues. We have slowly evolved The Mayors’ Dinner to focus less on individual accomplishment. While recognizing community contribution is an important component of community, there is also the need to explore how groups and individuals together engage the social issues of our times. This year we highlighted the importance of acting in determined hope in this age of insecurity that we find ourselves enveloped by.
The hosts Mayors Berry Vrbanovic, Dorothy McCabe and Jan Liggett offered greetings and genuine insights into how each of the cities are responding to the issues of our times.
The goal of the evening was to see the significant personal action needed as we face the challenges of refugees, homelessness and climate change and to reflect on how we can act into these issues. In the March issue of Good Work News, Rebecca Mancini described this as exploring,
“[… ]how we can live and act into irrepressible hope – a hope that acknowledges the realities around us and continues to act into the change we need with optimism. Throughout history, there are many beautiful examples where people have acted into what seems impossible and created positive change. As Toni Morrison said “No more apologies for a bleeding heart when the opposite is no heart at all. Danger of losing our humanity must be met with more humanity”.
These ideas have inspired the theme chosen for the Mayors’ Dinner this year. To Take Courage, To Take Care is a daunting and bold attestation to our commitment to hope.”
The Mayors’ Dinner program uniquely incorporated music, dance and a range of reflections. The performance of Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem highlighted the theme and embodied the spirit of the call to action. To start the evening members of the Grand Philharmonic Choir, KW Symphony and the New Vibes Jazz Quintet under the direction of conductor Mark Vuorinen, gave a full rendition of Anthem. Local contemporary dancer Tara Butler, an accomplished Canadian dancer, formerly with the National Ballet of Canada, interpreted Anthem from the stage.
Cohen’s song Anthem gave structure to the reflections that followed. The familiar chorus was sung repeatedly after each reflection.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack,
A crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Greg Kennedy and Rebecca Mancini led us in three separate reflections on Lament, Courage and Determined Hope, emphasizing that the work of justice requires gritty determination, stubborn optimism and collective steps forward to create new ways of being.
These reflections were interspersed between stories of the courage and the experience of working with refugees, of working with those experiencing homelessness and the work of engaging the climate crisis and the environment. We could have invited so many more people to reflect the many ways this courage lives in our community, and those who stood with us showed the beauty of this determined effort.
These testimonials from the Mayors’ Dinner are shared in this issue of Good Work News. They are the stories of our community and reflect the work and depth of courage that we must continually summon.
Donna Dubie from the Healing of the Seven Generations, started the evening with opening comments, inviting us to make decisions that “provide good choices in taking care of our next 7 generations.” “[You] will know that you are strong enough, and instead of asking for strength, ask for direction, knowledge, understanding and acceptance.”
Thank you to Luisa D’Amato, Barbara Hankins, Andy Macpherson, Tara Butler and Mark Vuorinen for bringing together the music, the musicians, the singers and the dance to perform Anthem.
We are grateful to RBJ Schlegel Family Foundation for generously contributing as our main event sponsor. In his opening remarks, Jamie Schlegel described his grandfather’s work supporting troubled youth as the wellspring of the family business.
This litany of determined hope and responsible action was reinforced throughout the evening in word, reflection and song.
