Telus Launches Luminato; Makes Gift to Sunnybrook's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Amid a powerful and glittering light display across Toronto’s waterfront, Luminato was born to the beat of 13-year-old Jackson Church’s heartbeat.  Luminato, Toronto’s new cultural festival, is a 10-day celebration of the arts, bringing major new installations and performances to Toronto.

Luminato opened on May 31, with the Pulse Front exhibit, a nighttime light display of 20 of the world’s most powerful searchlights, co-ordinated in the waterfront night sky to the beat of its audience’s heartbeats.  Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and exhibit sponsor Telus wanted a symbolic heartbeat to be the first to transfer life to the exhibit—and that’s where Sunnybrook and Jackson Church came in.

Thirteen years ago, Jackson Church was born 10-weeks prematurely at our facility.  As a two-pound baby, and typical of our most fragile new patients, Jackson spent another 10-weeks in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) until he could come home with his parents, Susan Shaw and Jeff Church.  Today, he is a 100-pound, 13-year-old, baseball-playing boy.  Jackson was asked by Telus and Sunnybrook to launch Luminato and Pulse Front by being the first person to hold the “sculptures” that would capture his pulse and send a searchlight pulsing in rhythmic time into the night sky.  Representing the hope for new life against the odds—of both premature babies and new creative efforts like Luminato—Jackson proudly stepped forward and showed Toronto what can be done.

In honour of the evening, and in lieu of mementos to event guests, Telus President of Business Solutions, Joe Natale, presented a gift on behalf of guests to Sunnybrook’s NICU.  The gift, $10,000, will go toward the capital project costs of building a new home for the NICU at Sunnybrook’s Bayview Avenue Campus, opening in 2010.  This is the latest act of philanthropy in a series of support received by Sunnybrook from its partner, Telus.

Sunnybrook thanks Telus and the creators of Luminato, Boston Consulting’s David Pecault and St. Joseph Media’s CEO Tony Gagliano, for this support.  Special thanks go to parents and Sunnybrook Foundation volunteers, Jeff Church and Susan Shaw, and their extraordinary son, Jackson Church, of whom we are all proud. 

Jackson’s heartbeat inspires Toronto’s arts scene, our medical professionals, and our donors, all whom are working together to create a new facility for Toronto’s most fragile young citizens.