The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

economist sunsuntribune saturday june 18 2005 17 26th anniversary edition i from one generation to next tradition of caring continues by suzanne wintrob like all great things polo for heart began with a vision just more than a quarter century ago a man named colonel michael sifton saw an opportunity to bring two of his favourite things together people and polo in addition to being a huge polo fan having learned to play in 1958 col sifton was also committed to charitable causes particularly anything to do with heartrelated research his father had died of a stroke and so he saddled up his friends at the toronto polo club and the heart action committee and together they set in motion what became the very first polo for heart charity event the first event was a resounding success involving an exuberant crowd- of 600 people and raising 25000 for charity fast forward 26 years and polo for heart is still going strong in fact it is now a truly international event with players and horses hailing from ireland france mexico argentina and the united states the annual event has raised more than 3 million for the heart and stroke foundation of ontario when col sifton died in 1995 his wife heather and their sons cliff michael and derek decided to continue his legacy today they work closely with 100 dedicated volunteers and a group of partners including the lions club of aurora inc so long as theres research to be done polo for heart will continue thanks to their hard work this years polo for heart june 24 to 26 will be the biggest ever with more than 10000 people from all over the world expected to converge on gormley polo centre in richmond hill this year the spotlight is families with lots of childfriend ly activities including a childrens village skydiving perform ing dogs clowns and face painters dressage demonstrations and ample space to picnic plenty of boutiques will offer unique oneofakind merchandise from gifted craftspeople and artisans proceeds go toward researclynto childrelated heart disease and education on healthy living our children are our future and thats why weve shifted gears to focus on the next generation says cliff sifton who picked up his first polo mallet as a child and now heads up the toronto polo club v consider the numberseight out of every 1000 babies born in canada have a congenital heart defect and by their first birthday another 13 of every 1000 children will be identified as having heart problems while many of these defects require little or no treatment some children arent so lucky so long as theres research tobedone to help jhese chil dren polo for heart will continue taking to the field says sifton v t 5 polo for heart 2005 yill have two daily matches played fri- daysaturayand sunday grandstanh seating is provided fac ing the polo field gametimeeacn day is noon and- 1 30 pm t 77777t7 1- the gdrmiey polb isonleslje street just south of the bloomington admission il6 children aged 12 and under are free park- j ingis free gates areopen lopm to 430 prn for further details call the polo hrheatt h6hinai4l4hz9i25 kpoloforhearlorgm mmwuw hlua rkiiti j wrl rj