February 10, 2025

On Board for the Bay Race

Scott Galbraith & Bianca Bruzzese Take on the Around the Bay Road Race & Raise Funds for St. Joe’s

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation is proud to share that two well-known members of Hamilton’s professional community are on board to co-champion this year’s Around the Bay Race.  Scott Galbraith, District Vice-President, TD Financial Group Hamilton, and Bianca Bruzzese, Partner – Private Enterprise, KPMG LLP, Hamilton, are teaming up to take on North America’s oldest road race while raising funds for St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton – the hospital that’s been caring for residents of our region for more than a century. 

Both Scott and Bianca have taken on active roles within St. Joe’s: Scott as a long-standing member and current Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation, and Bianca having previously been a member of the board, as well as holding the role of Treasurer for the past fiscal year. Both have been generous with their time and expertise, advocating for the organization and supporting its ongoing initiatives and fundraising efforts.  

But Scott and Bianca’s connections to St. Joe’s run much deeper than their board tenures.  

Like so many in our community, Scott has been cared for at St. Joe’s over the years and has a personal connection to the cause.  

“A surgical repair of my torn Achilles tendon performed by Dr. Anthony Adili is the reason why I’m able to take part in the Bay Race again,” says Scott who’s also undergone a colon resection at the hospital. “This year funds raised through the race are supporting the Hospital’s robotic surgery program. This matters to me for two reasons: First, my brother passed away of an aggressive form of inoperable colon cancer when he was just 38. In speaking with some of the surgeons at St. Joe’s, I understand that robotic surgery may one day make that kind of inoperable cancer – operable. And second, my son lives with an auto-immune disorder that means he may need joint replacements early in his life. These, too, are done robotically at St. Joe’s. So, for the care I’ve received, and for the care that my son and so many others may one day receive there, I’m honoured to co-champion the Bay Race and St. Joe’s fundraising efforts this year.”  

Bianca has a more future focused reason for supporting St. Joe’s. 

 “In my time on the Board and working closely with the team at St. Joe’s, I have come to appreciate the value of the services that St. Joe’s brings to our community.  I strongly believe that it is important, really our obligation as leaders within our community, to make an investment today so that future generations will be looked after when the need arises,” says Bianca. 

As co-community champions for the 2025 event, Scott and Bianca are inviting their family, friends and colleagues to join them in taking part in the 131^st run of Hamilton’s iconic Around the Bay Race. Together with their teams from TD and KPMG, they hope to raise $100,000 in donations.  

In addition to the TD & KPMG teams, other corporate institutions within Hamilton like the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA!), ArcelorMittal Dofasco, Stelco, and Scarfone Hawkins to name a few, are all entering teams in the Bay Race to raise funds for St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation. These corporate teams are complemented by hundreds of hospital staff and departmental teams from St. Joe’s as well as countless grateful patients, families, community members and friends of the Hospital taking part in the event.  

“That’s one of the most beautiful things about the Bay Race,” says Sera Filice, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation. “With a 5k, 10k, 15k, and the signature 30k distance, this event attracts everyone from elite marathoners to neighbourhood walkers. But the best part of the Bay Race is how it brings our community together in support of St. Joe’s and a healthier Hamilton.” 

Including Scott and Bianca’s $100,000 goal, St. Joe’s hopes to raise nearly half-a-million dollars through the 2025 Around the Bay Race – to support robotic surgery innovation and other patient care needs at the hospital.  

For 13 years, St. Joe’s has been investigating the power and the promise of robotic surgery. Nearly 5,000 procedures and 11 published research studies later, the province has taken notice of the improved patient outcomes and recovery rates, and funded three types of robotic surgeries for prostate, kidney and uterine cancers. But for the seven other types of procedures St. Joe’s performs, the hospital and its patients rely on donations from the community.  

Funding from the Bay Race will help the Hospital to acquire an additional surgical robot so it can double the number of robotic surgeries performed annually and make sure that every patient living with cancers of the head, neck, lungs, and bladder, as well as those undergoing hip and knee replacements, can have access to the most advanced surgical care in our region.  

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2025 Around the Bay Road Race 

Sunday, March 30, 2025 
Finishing at LiUNA Station  
www.bayrace.com 
www.stjoesfoundation.ca/atb 

About the Around the Bay Road Race & St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation 

The Around the Bay Road Race is the oldest race in North America – even older than the Boston Marathon. For 131 years, tens of thousands of participants have been taking to the streets of Hamilton to run around the bay and back again. In 2005, the Bay Race became a signature fundraising event for St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation. Over the past 20 years, more than $5.5 million has been raised by Bay Race participants to support patient care and research at St. Joe’s. Supplementary funding through donations is essential during these times when the demand for care outweighs the funding available from the province for critical programs and services. Race registration fees go directly to the Around the Bay Road Race to help with the costs associated with the event. Only when a runner decides to make a gift at the time of registration, or when they ask friends and family to donate to support their run, do those funds support St. Joe’s. We’re grateful to every Bay Race participant and donor for their generous support of St. Joe’s.