Firefly was honored to be the charity selected by the Students at the Toronto French School this year to benefit from the amazing Dance Show that took place on January 13th and 14th. There were three performances in all — two shows in the evening and one on Friday afternoon for the Students of the Junior School.

This show was organized by a small team from the graduating class of 2011. Danielle, Leela and Oliva… our hats are off to you for doing an outstanding job and making this such a successful event. The Dancers displayed such talent, and your choreographers had so much to be proud of. The emcees stole the show and the great energy of everyone involved was matched with the enthusiasm of your audience.

This event raised $6,000.00. Thank you so much for supporting Firefly. It’s our mission to make Alzheimer’s, an old persons disease, a young person’s cause. And by bringing Firefly into your school you’ve helped us achieve our goal.

Heather Fraser, the Founder of the Firefly Foundation, gave a short address at the beginning of the show to thank the school for their support and to give a brief update on how the dollars donated in 2009 had been spent.

All donations to the Firefly Foundation have gone into two areas of research.

1. Early stage proof of concept research being conducted by the CRND at the University of Toronto. To date Firefly has donated $300,000 and will contribute an additional $100,000 in 2011.

2. In partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Ontario we created the Spark Award. This award provides financial support to a post doctoral fellow who will be involved in innovative studies that will investigate behavioral and lifestyle practices that reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, or slow its progression.

Firefly is currently involved in developing programs for young people to learn more about their brains. Our aim is to empower students to become bright lights in their communities as advocates for brain health, and make Alzheimer’s, an old person’s disease a young person’s cause.