Let’s shed some light on the wonderful concrete jungle we call Toronto. I had the pleasure of experiencing a collaboration of urban worlds, at this year’s Cover Me Urban fundraiser last Wednesday night. The tastes, sights and sounds of Little Italy, King West, the Junction, Kensington Market, High Park and Rexdale were featured. These neighbourhoods create diversification within our city, and on this night, we came together to support and give back to our homeless youth.
The Glass Factory was transformed into a metropolitan cityscape, exhibiting each neighbourhood in its prime. Upon arriving, I was immediately overwhelmed by delicious street food that you can’t find in your local go-to restaurant. As I sipped on a glass of Oyster Bay Rosé, Jaime Gallant of Coastline Catering preformed an oyster shucking demo right before my very eyes. Afterwards, I made my way across the room to indulge on a little beer tasting with Brewmaster, Joel Manning from Mill Street Brewery. It was a tie between the Popeye crepes from Crepe Delicious, and the shrimp ceviche tortillas from Chef Keith Hoare and the students of the Thistledown CI Culinary Program, that took the cake. Besides the savoury greatness, the evening was filled with many memorable highlights such as airbrush tattoos, an urban themed photo booth, beat boxing, street percussion, an impromptu fashion show and the list goes on. Not to mention a silent auction and a raffle – all with fancy shmancy prizes. For the little bit, I snuck outside to witness Jessey Pacho work his graffiti magic on some street art, that was to be auctioned off later in the night. All the while, our emcee Jaime Gutfreund from CP24 continued to enthuse guests.
Cover Me Urban is run by emergency residence, Youth Without Shelter. Located in Etobicoke, they are solely dedicated to the future of Toronto’s homeless youth. They assist youth through education, life skills, counselling, employment guidance and placement through affordable housing. Using all the proceeds raised from the event, they aim to assist over 1000 youth across Toronto this year. The positive energy and the urban vibrancy of the evening, excreted a great awareness with all attendees. From this, I am quite confident in saying that they will most likely reach their goal.
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It was quite the delight to see the youth who benefits and the former resident who cohosted with Jaime and is not mentioned. Seeing and hearing of her achievements will encourage my future support for YWS.