The annual Walk ‘n Roll Fest for Healthy Kids recently celebrated its third year by raising over $105,000 and marking the highest amount of money raised during the event to date.   

Proceeds from the 5K walk event, which was held at the Woodbine Racetrack, will be used to purchase equipment for Etobicoke General Hospital's new NICU unit and expanded labour and delivery unit, according to a press release. The unit will be housed in the hospital’s new patient tower under construction.

Michelle Machado' son Giovanni, a former patient at Etobicoke, officially opened the start of the event.

“It’s incredible to see so many people come together for this cause and so inspiring to see that our community cares so much about their hospital,” Machado said in the release “We never need a hospital until we do, and when it happens, as it did to my family when my son Giovanni needed critical care, you are immeasurably grateful that someone paid it forward to help build and equip that hospital."

Etobicoke, which was opened in 1972, is in the process of building a new 250,000-square-foot, four-storey wing to expand its emergency and maternal/newborn care with a capacity to deliver 4,000 babies each year.

“I want to congratulate the Walk ‘n Roll Fest participants who ran and walked for the young patients and families of Etobicoke General Hospital,” Ken Mayhew, president and CEO of the William Osler Health System Foundation, said in the release.