Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation Community Report

For 2025/2026, the Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation wants to highlight two stories that exemplify our saying that our amazing donors help us bring “the high touch and the high tech” to our patients at Ajax Pickering Hospital. 

Everyone who comes through our doors deserves both compassionate and top-notch health care.  

On September 11, the dining room was a-buzz as guests, hospital and Foundation staff watched donor after donor put up their hands to make an extra gift, raising the day’s total raised higher and higher until it reached $1 million (net)! 

This was no ordinary day, this was the 30th anniversary of the Mayors’ Charity Golf Classic. An event founded by Howard Sokolowski who wanted to give back to the community in which he was doing business.  He had a vision to take fundraising for a small community hospital and create a ‘next-level’ event which has left the Ajax Pickering Hospital with a legacy of providing the best equipment for the best patient care, close to home.  And three decades later, this tournament is still the most important signature event that the Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation runs every year and with no exaggeration, has helped hundreds of thousands of people. 

But Howard did not do it alone.  Also present at the 2025 tournament were two people who were with him from Day One: Bill Collier, now retired from RBC, who also went on to chair the event for 14 years after being passed the baton by Howard; and Lucy Stocco, recently retired from Tribute Communities, who is still involved in the tournament to this day! 

Along with current mayors Shaun Collier, Town of Ajax,  and Kevin Ashe, City of Pickering, it was also an honour to have retired mayors join us, all of whom had lent their name and the support of their offices to the event, helping expand its success: 

We were also very proud that we could celebrate eight sponsors who have been with us every year for thirty years: 

Special thanks to Howard for hosting the Founder’s Anniversary Tournament to celebrate our milestone, as well as to Harry Lebovic who kicked off the special donations with a $250,000 gift. 

The net proceeds from the 2025 Mayors’ Charity Golf Classic are funding new operating room beds and a new fleet of laparoscopic tools for the operating rooms at Ajax Pickering Hospital. 

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For the last few years, the Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation has worked with our inpatient mental health team and the staff of the Assertive Community Assessment Team (ACTT) to support their patients and clients during the Christmas season. Knowing that this group of people are so often marginalized within society, the entire mental health team want them to thrive in the community as much as possible. 

This year in total, we provided over 50 backpacks full of items, over 70 baskets (either full of food or personal care items) as well as much-needed extra special gifts.  

None of this would be possible without some special donors who immediately answer our call for support, and do so with such joy! They spread the generosity of the season, and bring smiles to the faces of people they might never meet. 

Each year when we are organizing this festive project, no request is ever too small or too outlandish for Phoenix A.M.D. International Inc. This includes fulfilling the wish of one client who wanted shortbread in a red tin! In the days before Christmas, they arrive with their cars packed tight with bags of clothes, winter coats and shoes and boots, specially requested by ACTT, so that their clients can properly weather the winter season without adding extra stress to their already limited finances.