Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation

February 25th, 2016 was a night to remember for the team at the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation. The first ever Edmonton Event Awards were held to celebrate leadership and excellence in the event planning industry and the foundation's signature event "Harvest Celebration" that supports the Lois Hole Hospital for Women was selected as Best Fundraiser for 2015.

From the moment guests entered the Royal Alberta Museum, which played host to the awards ceremony, attendees were swept away by the excitement of the evening. Circus performers, cotton candy spiked champagne cocktails and artful decor made it clear that the organizers had stepped up their game to welcome their peers. 

A sense of excitement and anticipation was in the air as nominees circled and offered congratulations to one another. Overall there were 16 categories split into 4 groups to acknowledge the best in the industry for 2015. 

The program for the evening kicked off with a wonderful performance by Best Event Entertainer nominee Uptown. After some award presentations the audience was thrown into fits of laughter with a performance by another Best Event Entertainer nominee Rapid Fire Theatre, two of our foundation staff members even got to be part of the show!      

As the signature fundraising event for the Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Harvest Celebration 2015 opened a new chapter in the continued development of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women as an epicenter for women’s health excellence in Alberta and Western Canada, focusing on the development of an Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgical Program. The event was created and executed by a committee comprised of foundation staff and volunteers and led by Zahra Mawji, Signature and Community Events and Fundraising Officer for the foundation. 

"Working with the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation team, the vendors, and the volunteers, Zahra created the finest event that the foundation has ever put on, and now one which we can proudly call the finest in the city" stated Andrew Otway President and CEO of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation.  

As team lead Zahra credits the volunteer leadership of the Harvest Celebration Committee for making the win possible; Oliva Butti (pictured above), Director on the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation's Board of Directors was one of those volunteers and able to join in the celebration on the awards evening. 

When asked about the evening Mawji shared "It was a wonderful event allowing me to reconnect with old colleagues and make new connections. The excitement was overwhelming and I am so proud of our team and what we achieved in 2015. Being named as the inaugural winner for the Best Fundraiser in Edmonton is quite an honour."

Harvest Celebration is an annual event and the team is hard at work preparing and organizing for the next Harvest Celebration being held September 17, 2016 at the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert. The team is certainly up for the challenge of building on their award winning year. 

Visit the Harvest Celebration Event Page to learn more and reserve your table today!

Special thanks to Special Events (digital) Photos, a division of Avonlea Photography Studio for the amazing photos of our evening.