What: Give a Night 2012
Where: Cube Nightclub, 314 Queen St. W.
When: November 29, 2012
By 8 p.m. last Thursday, a line was already forming outside Cube Nightclub. With tickets sold out for more than a week, hundreds of young professionals descended upon the Queen West club for an evening filled with new friends, hot beats and a message of hope. Billed as a “party with a purpose,” the fifth annual Give a Night event raised funds and awareness for programs engaged in the global fight against HIV & AIDS. Organized by Bay Street articling students, the event featured a silent auction, plenty of networking and rocked late into the night with the help of guest DJ Chris Laroque.
Give a Night is an extension of the popular Give a Day campaign that asks people to donate a day’s pay to Dignatas International or the Stephen Lewis Foundation in recognition of World AIDS Day on December 1. Money raised is used to support the development of effective, community-based solutions to the pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. The campaign has become an annual tradition in the Toronto legal community, and Give a Night was borne out of a desire for young lawyers and students to be able to participate.
The event’s corporate sponsors included: Borden Ladner Gervais and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP (Platinum); Fasken Martineau, Heenan Blaikie, Cassels Brock, WeirFoulds and Rhombus Media (Gold); and Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Chaitons LLP, Dale & Lessmann LLP and Norton Rose (Bronze).
This year, Give a Night expanded its reach by inviting young professionals from across the GTA to participate. Event treasurer Catherine Gleason-Mercier from Osler describes HIV & AIDS as an issue that impacts us all: “When you hear about a 15-year-old girl raising four kids because their mother has died [of AIDS], it doesn’t have to be a legal issue for you to care.” Last night, 700 people agreed with her. Including ticket sales, corporate sponsorship and the silent auction, over $23,000 was raised in an act of solidarity with the 34 million people around the world courageously living with this disease.
Photography by Johann Kwan