Friday, June 21, 2013
Kreviazuk Shines for the War Child
Effort
They decided to
dispense with formalities at the Chantal Kreviazuk concert last Friday night in
Belleville Winnipeg
Truth be told,
extensive technical work took place long before she placed her hands on the
keyboard. Her sound man spent more than an hour tuning the fine Yamaha grand at
the Belleville
Sam Nutt is a
Canadian doctor who works as a physician at Women’s College
Hospital in Toronto Belleville
The Columnist, Chantal, and Dr. Sam Nutt
Sam Nutt has more
letters after her name than Carter has pills. (That is a bit dated. She has
more letters than Jose Bautista has home runs!) She has been appointed to every
major award in Canada
Dr. Nutt addressed
the gathering briefly before Kreviazuk took the stage. She explained her
relationship with War Child as a founder more than ten years ago, and
emphasized its importance. “A woman’s economic development will determine
whether or not her child will reach his or her fifth birthday. What we needed
to know was: ‘How do you reach these women who are high risk?’’
Much of the work
involves literacy and skills training, which comes with a significant cost: $
4000 to $ 5 000 per year. The women who are chosen for the program must receive
permission from their husbands to participate. Most are sceptical before they
begin the program.
Dr. Nutt sited the
example of Shima, a mother of seven children. She and her husband collected
vegetables which were discarded by garden marketers, and sold them to the poor.
Following a year of training in the program, she was able to start a tailoring
business. Her first employee was her husband! She now has fifty employees, and
their children are all in school. Shima
noted the biggest difference in their lives: “Before this program, in my
family, my husband was the president. Now”, she added, “I am the president!”
James Hurst and Dr. Sam Nutt
Dr. Nutt noted that
change may be incremental, but in time will be monumental. As indicated, the
event was held to raise funds for the War Child effort. Donations can be made
at: www.warchild.ca/donate, or by
calling toll free: 1-866-927-2445.
Chantal was
accompanied by Karen Graves, from Caledon
Most of the attendees
were impressed with the power and the splendour of Chantal’s voice. She mixed
in Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home” with “Before You”, dedicated to her
husband, Raine Maida, a fine musician in his own right with “Our Lady Peace”.
She borrowed an old John Denver classic, “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane”, with just
enough personal panache to make it a huge hit for herself.
Her between song
banter was perfect. Not conceited, most personal. Her tale about song selection,
as required by her mother’s druggist, was hilarious, without being too
critical. She gave us her mother’s favourite song, “All I can do”. She closed
with a couple of encores, “I love you” for her husband, and “Invincible”.
Kudos to Dr, Jonathan
Kerr and Christy Wagner for spearheading the effort to arrange such an evening.
One can only hope for more to come.
James Hurst
# posted by James Hurst @ 5:38 AM 
