Initiatives

Initiatives

CCSC is named for its two founding donors - The Forzani Group Foundation and Calgary business leader Keith MacPhail. Through Reach!, the joint fundraising initiative of the Calgary Health Region and the University of Calgary, The Forzani Group Foundation and the MacPhail Family donated over $2.7 million toward CCSC.

Reach! was launched in October 2005 and was made up of a strong core of community volunteers. The initiative set out to raise $300 million in targeted philanthropic gifts for over 100 projects in medical research, education, patient care, and public health and wellness; over $312 million was raised.

The money raised by Reach! was used to advance projects in eight key areas contributing to better health and wellness: bone and joint; brain; cancer; cardiovascular; child and maternal health; infection, immunity and inflammation; new frontiers of medicine; and public health and wellness.

CCSC is one of many project projects already underway as a result of philanthropic investments through Reach! Other projects span the health continuum and include, among others:

• new institutes of health;
• dedicated research laboratories in cancer, infectious diseases, spinal cord research, and hypertension;
• numerous research Chairs designed to attract the best and the brightest medical minds in the world to lead research enterprises in Calgary;
• community well-being projects targeting health of refugees, healthy eating for students; falls prevention for seniors;
• the world’s first MRI-compatible surgical robot; and
• scholarship / education funds for medical students and health care workers.