December 31, 2025

The Casey House Countdown 2025

12 months since our EPIC announcement

First, we’re rewinding back 12 months to January when we kicked off our electronic medical records transition. Now in use, the new Epic software helps us better serve clients, providing more detailed, conveniently accessible, and comprehensive care.We were grateful to join in partnership with Mackenzie Health to upgrade our EMR from our previous database to Epic systems. After a tremendous amount of work from both Casey House and Mackenzie Health staff, we went live in September and continue to roll out and expand the capabilities of the EMR suite.

11 sponsored live auction lots in Art With Heart 2025

We’re celebrating the 11 sponsored Art With Heart artworks from the live auction. There were also matching donations for three silent auction lots, and those contributions combined with art sales, sponsorships and Patrons’ Circle memberships cumulatively raised $1.34 million for Art With Heart 2025. We are honoured to have the trust and dedication of so many fantastic supporters in the art community. Thank you to the eleven groups who generously matched a lot in this year’s live auction with a donation, inspiring guests to bid generously!
Lots:
Belmont Clinic matched Alek Bélanger (Lot 1)
Alex Bierk – Metro Drugs matched Alex Bierk (Lot 2)
Norton Rose Fulbright matched Isabel Okoro (Lot 6)
DAVIES matched Mitsuo Kimura (Lot 10)
TD Bank Group matched Phuong Nguyen (Lot 12)
Rogers Communications Inc. matched Celia Lees (Lot 21)
Superframe matched Beau Gomez (Lot 24)
Lindy Green Family Foundation matched Moses Salihou (Lot 28)
Elementary Teachers’ Foundation of Ontario matched Anique Jordan (Lot 33)
Genova Private Management Inc. matched Francisco De la Barra (Lot 35)
TD Bank Group matched Krystle Silverfox (Lot 45)

10 gridlines on our latest memorial quilt

Our latest quilt honours clients who died in 2016. We were proud to welcome the latest addition to our memorial quilt collection, lovingly handmade by members of the dedicated volunteer quilting committee—Irina, Rhys, Lucy, Chloe, Tina, Penny, and Arthur. The 2016 quilt was unveiled in-person during our World AIDS Day celebration of life and remembrance earlier this month. Quilts are displayed in various rooms across Casey House and switched out seasonally.

9 p.m. on the dancefloor at David’s Disco

Those who met under this year’s disco ball raised a dazzling $545,000 for critical health care services at Casey House. The evening included sparkles, swagger, an electrifying drag performance by Brooke Lynn Hytes, the rollerskating Melanin Skate Crew, and our amazing DJ who puts the ‘Phil’ in ‘philanthropy’. We can’t wait to see you on the guest list for the next David’s Disco Saturday, March 28, 2026. Save us a dance?

8 days left to donate in 2025

Casey House provides care and comfort for our clients all year round– beyond the holidays. Your generosity is like a warm, healing hug. It helps provide comfort, nourishment, and dignity to people living with or at risk of HIV who need compassionate care. Even the things we take for granted, like a warm cup of coffee, a fresh set of clothing, or someone lending a listening ear can make a real difference. Give a healing hug that brings warmth and dignity. Your donation will make a real difference for our clients.

7 days a week of inpatient care

We provide care for our inpatient clients seven days a week. That’s including weekends, holidays, and overnight, every night. Our inpatient unit provides sub-acute care, and clients are admitted for a variety of reasons including pre or post-surgery support, intensive but stabilized care, injury recovery, or end-of-life care. Our interdisciplinary team includes nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, a pharmacist, social workers, peers, and volunteers.
It can be difficult to be admitted to hospital during the holiday season, but we do our best to make sure their stay is comfortable. From intentionally designed rooms that feel like home, additional volunteer or outpatient programming, to special holiday meals from our kitchen services team—who provide three homecooked meals a day for each inpatient client.
To learn more about Casey House’s inpatient services, watch our walk through video.

6 new washrooms for clients

Just before the end of the year, we unveiled six new single-stall washrooms on our first floor. Major renovations began in the summer and were completed just before the end of the year, which was celebrated with a mini ceremonial “toilet-paper-ribbon” cutting. Having accessible, private, gender-neutral washrooms for clients, volunteers, peers, staff, and visitors is an essential amenity for hygiene, dignity, and comfort. Whether clients are sleeping rough, experience chronic illnesses or mobility challenges, or are simply in the building, these six new washrooms are a welcome addition to our first floor, especially during the busy lunch rush.

5 productions of Casey & Diana in 2025

Thank you for bringing of the story of Casey House across the country. We are incredibly grateful for Nick Green’s fictional recounting of the real-life visit from Princess Diana in 1991. It is an honour to be celebrated for this iconic moment in Canadian history and to share this light with audiences across the nation. A special shout out to our dear friend Andrew Kushnir, for directing three of these productions.
Casey House would like to sincerely thank every person who attended the show, the casts and crews, and each theatre staff member who helped to keep our stories alive.
Theatre Aquarius (Hamilton, ON)
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg, MB)
Neptune Theatre (Halifax, NS)
ArtsClub Theatre Company (Vancouver, BC)
Yes Theatre (Sudbury, ON)

4 sacred medicines planted

We’re showcasing the four sacred medicines planted in our Love Family Healing Garden. This summer, we redesigned our rooftop garden to include four medicines used for smudging: sage, tobacco, cedar, and sweet grass. These plants, arranged as a medicine wheel in a raised bed, are grown, harvested, and dried, before being added to our supply of sacred medicines for smudging. This project was supported by our Indigenous advisory committee and completed by the lovely garden consultants at Miinikaan. To learn more about the redesign of our rooftop Love Family Healing garden, read the blog post Going back to the roots of our Love Family Healing rooftop garden here.

3 volunteer profiles added

We couldn’t forget the three amazing volunteers we featured earlier this year: Heather, Melanie, and Diana. These friendly folks represent just a few of those who have generously contributed so much time and heart to our clients here at Casey House. Across fundraising events, lunch service, and friendly visits with inpatient clients, we’re always happy to see these dedicated volunteers. Volunteers make an enormous impact. We were also grateful to celebrate their dedication during our Hearts of Service ceremony, which commemorates volunteering milestones. Thank you to all the volunteers who filled our House with love this year!
To learn more about becoming a Casey House volunteering or to read the profiles, click here.

2 hours of lunch

As a part of our food philosophy, we maintain that food is clinical care. A re-imagining with the tremendous efforts led by our data, strategy, and knowledge team alongside the kitchen services team, we were able to scale up our hot midday lunch program to serve more people over a longer period. Now, we serve around 300 homecooked lunches to outpatient clients and community members each weekday starting at noon.
 
Not only are there more meals, but lunch became a place to introduce clinical staff, services, and programs. A new team of social service workers were brought on to facilitate client registration, staff were invited to attend lunch to check in with clients and build relationships, peers give tours and overviews of our services, and of course, the fantastic volunteers serve the meals to clients. We are truly grateful to the entire team behind this new ecosystem of food, connection, and care.

1 new sacred fire

For the final slot of our Casey House Countdown, we’re going out with a bang and celebrating our new Indigenous sacred fire. This initiative was led by our Indigenous advisory committee and installed in our courtyard in June. Sacred fires are a key component of ceremonies, serving as a communication pathway to the ancestors when we burn tobacco ties. Its warmth provides a space for gathering, feasting, commemoration, and celebration. We’ve held sacred fires for significant Indigenous dates, and the seasonal solstices. Casey House is proud to be able to incorporate sacred fires on-site to as an additional sacred medicine. featuring this fire in our interior courtyard next to our heart statue—this symbol of ferocity and life is sure to keep us warm all year round.
 
Happy New Year to everyone! We’ll see you in 2026.

More