Gold Plate Dinner gives from the heart

It’s rare for an attendee to leave a fundraising gala with more money in their pocket than when they arrived but, for a lucky few, that was the case at last night’s 36th Gold Plate Dinner.

The popular event offered over 600 attendees, many of them business sponsors, the chance to win cash prizes, including up to $30,000, or a brand new Mercedes-Benz sedan from Star Motors as part of the reverse elimination draw.

To date, the Gold Plate Dinner has raised more than $2.5 million. Its two causes are the Hellenic Community of Ottawa and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

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Commercial real estate professionals Aik Aliferis and Nick Pantieras, both with the Institutional Property Advisors division of Marcus & Millichap, were back to co-chair the event.  The organizing committee also included Bill Kontogiannis, Wayne Kerrick (Gowling WLG), Constantine Gournakis, Tom Varvaresos, Bessie Giovanopoulos and Chris Anastasiou.

The co-chairs took over the leadership role several years ago from Steve Ramphos of District Realty after he put three decades into creating a special evening of food, drink and camaraderie. It’s “a real good feeling” to see the Gold Plate Dinner continue, Ramphos told OBJ.social in the large party tent, where attendees gathered for cocktails and, later, the after-party.

The Hellenic Event Centre and its parking lot on Prince of Wales Drive were transformed into a night club and banquet hall for the night. The co-chairs got a big thank you from the Hellenic community’s spiritual leader, Father Alex Michalopoulos, better known as Father Alex. He also expressed his greater appreciation for our city’s nurses and doctors since being treated for COVID-19 during the pandemic. “We’re blessed,” said Michalopoulos, who had made a promise to himself, should he survive his sickness, to support our local health care facilities “for as long as I live”.

The priest entertained the audience with jokes, expressing concern that his comedic material on marriage could see him relegated to sleeping in the shed that night. Part of the proceeds from the dinner go toward the Hellenic Community’s educational and cultural programs.

Guests included Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. He may feel a special connection to Greece, the birthplace of the marathon. He’ll be going the full distance this weekend during the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend (he’s also raising money for a Barrhaven man whose entire family was killed).

From the Heart Institute were its president and CEO, Dr. Rob Beanlands, and his board chair, former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, award-winning cardiac surgeon Vincent Chan, the Heart Institute Foundation’s president Lianne Laing and her board chair Elizabeth Roscoe (Rubicon Strategy) and incoming board chair James Annis (BMO Nesbitt Burns).

From the Hellenic community were new board president Danny Sartzetakis and his fellow board members. Dymon storage was back at the top sponsor.

Derick Fage, host and producer of Daytime Ottawa on Rogers TV, joined forces with Patricia Boal from CTV Ottawa News and 580 CFRA to host the evening. It included a live auction and the reverse eliminations draws, supervised by EY tax partner Darrell Bontes.

Another highlight was listening to Tony Pantieras play Zorba’s Dance on his bouzouki (it’s that famous song that starts off slow and sluggish and gradually gets faster) while the audience clapped along or enthusiastically waved dinner napkins in the air. Also exciting was watching Aliferis try to raise $50,000 from the room. He was highly motivated after an anonymous donor offered to match the amount if Aliferis could pull it off. He did, in just under six minutes, as people offered to donate amounts ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. 

The matching donor was Brigil president and founder Gilles Desjardins, who later took to the stage to say a few words. He was joined by his COO, Alain Grandmaison, who, as a patient of the Heart Institute, offered his sincere thanks to the medical institution and to Dr. Marc Ruel, the cardiac surgeon who operated on him.

Sold off during the auction were a dinner for 10 at La Bottega Nicastro, a private suite for the upcoming Billy Idol concert at the Canadian Tire Centre and a F1 Miami Grand Prix weekend.

The first elimination contest saw 10 finalists reduced to two, with Abarnath Devaraj (Colliers Canada) and Samar Saab splitting the $10,000 pot. Said Saab on stage: “I’m Lebanese but I’m giving it back to the Greek community.”

During the next reverse elimination draw, 20 contestants had to decide whether to share the $30,000 pot or risk having one of their names pulled from the lottery drum, thereby booting them from the contest but leaving more money for the remaining contestants to split evenly. If the contest gets down to one person, they have the option of taking the Mercedes. That last happened in 2019. 

Contestants have to unanimously agree to stop and share the money; otherwise, the lottery drum keeps spinning and the number of another “lucky loser” is pulled. 

It was only when the original group of 20 dwindled down to four that it agreed to stop. The final four were: Jeremy Pepin (Mark Motors), Dimitra Melehes, Sunil Singh (Dymon) and Eric Botelho (Delta Electric).