Arts & Community
UNIQUE ART PIECES SUPPORT HOSPITAL’S MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM BY DOROTHY GEBERT Would you sit on a piece of art? Artist Laura Woermke hopes you will. She is painting a chair to be auctioned off at the Chair Affair, a new fundraiser for the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital Foundation this October. “I jumped at the opportunity to paint one and to make it a fine art piece,” Laura said. “I’m not sure if people will sit in the one they purchase, but if I had one, I would sit in it. A chair is like a work of art, except it’s more accessible. It’s understandable. And
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whatever is on it and how it is decorated makes it a great conversation piece.” The Chair Affair is the brainchild of Joanne Beaton, Staff Representative for the Chair Affair, at the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital Foundation. “The hospital has wanted, for some time, to do a major fundraising event or signature gala, so we tried to figure out how to do that,” she said. Joanne had seen similar Chair Affair events work well in other communities, where fundraising for a good cause
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