Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Crowd favourites The Painchaud Family are set to return for Lennox and Addington County General Hospital’s fourth annual Foundation Gala, which will take place Feb. 8 at the Westdale Complex.
They’re best described as a mix of music and acrobatics, known for performing a wide variety of songs while adding the theatrics of Cirque-du-Soleil-esque balancing acts.
Tickets are already selling quickly for the event, with just over 50 of the 180 total remaining.
“They did our annual gala and they’re coming back by popular demand,” said fundraising gala co-chair Mike Airhart.
Airhart, who is chairing the event with Ryan Moore said “It’s going to be a different show than the first one, it’s completely unique.”
Since that first performance, The Painchaud Family added a fourth member to the act. Last time they had the audience in awe of their ability to visit every table, take a song suggestion and play it on fiddle, guitar and harp.
“Honest to God anything from Metallica to East Coast,” said Airhart. “They do Johnny Cash, they do country, they do any genre of music.”
And of course, there’s the acrobatics.
“He climbed up a tripod and it was 10 feet in the air,” said Airhart. “He had a guitar mounted to the top of it. At the end of it he was playing it with his feet completely backwards off it. He was balancing himself while playing his guitar 10 feet in the air.”
The Painchaud Family wowed the crowd at the first LACGH Hospital Gala with their acrobatics and music.
This year the money raised from the event will be going towards a very specific project.
“Any money raised from it is going to the acquisition and operation of a CT Scan machine,” said Airhart. “All of the doctors are excited about this. It’ll be a fantastic thing to have in our hospital, to have our own CT Scan so we’re not sending everyone to Kingston and reading it back that way.”
Tickets for the event are $125 per person with a $75 tax receipt. That includes a four course meal, glass of wine, professional photo and the entertainment. They’re available now at the hospital, Hart n’ Hart and McDougall Insurance.
Airhart and Moore are also seeking corporate sponsors for the event. Gala sponsor is available for $10,000, entertainment sponsor for $7,500, gold for $5,000 and silver for $2,500. Wine and decoration sponsors are also available. Anyone interested should contact the foundation office at 613-354-3301 ext. 400.
To date the previous three galas have raised $171,377 for the hospital with the goal of breaking the $200,000 mark for next year’s event.