Gord Downie pumpkin heading to Toronto for fundraising auction
John Mazerolle | CBC News | Posted: October 13, 2016 10:00 PM | Last Updated: October 13, 2016
P.E.I. carver Chris Gilfoy was contacted by Sunnybrook Hospital about making a new Gord gourd
Gourd Downie is going on tour.
A pumpkin carved with an accurate likeness of Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie in full-throated performance drew a lot of social media attention for Summerside's Chris Gilfoy earlier this year.
Now, the longtime Hip fan will carve the same image into a new pumpkin, which will be shipped to Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital where it will be auctioned off to raise money for the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research.
That's what I'm looking forward to the most, actually, is to find out just how much good it did. - Chris Gilfoy
Downie is suffering from glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer with no cure.
As he toured with the Hip on their Man Machine Poem tour and announced a new solo project, the cancer research fund earned more than $800,000 as of mid-September.
'It makes me a little bit nervous'
Gilfoy told CBC News he was contacted by a doctor in Sunnybrook's neurology department asking if a similar pumpkin could be shipped to Toronto.
"We've been in touch with a courier who's willing to send it out for next-day delivery," said Gilfoy, who said a carved pumpkin without candles in it can last for four days.
Gilfoy, who has been carving pumpkins for about 12 years, considered a new pattern for the pumpkin, but finally decided none of the other photos he could work from "quite captured Gord the way this one does" singing with a lot of heartfelt emotion.
"It makes me a little bit nervous, because I knew in the past if I screwed it up I could always just throw it away or do another one or not post the pictures or something like that," he said.
"But there's a little bit of pressure to make sure this one turns out just perfect."
Not accepting pay
Gilfoy said he's so thrilled to create a pumpkin that will help people that he turned down offers from Sunnybrook to pay for the pumpkin or the time he puts into it.
"There was just no way I was having that," he said.
Instead, Gilfoy just wants to know how much money it goes for at auction.
"That's what I'm looking forward to the most, actually, is to find out just how much good it did."
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