Mercy Ships’ #IJust bought a boat at Toronto Show
Jan 11, 2018
Joan Kelley Walker
This year at the Toronto International Boat Show, Mercy Ships Canada will give visitors the chance to buy a boat through a digital experience.
Technically, visitors won’t be buying a boat, but rather a ship—Mercy Ships. Mercy Ships operates the world’s largest volunteer-run floating hospital ship, delivering free life-saving surgical care to the world’s most impoverished communities. With the help of its volunteer surgeons, doctors, and nurses, Mercy Ships has helped transform the lives of more than 2.42 million people in the poorest countries of the world since 1978.
Show visitors can learn more about the charitable organization and how to donate by visiting the “I just bought a boat” interactive exhibit at TIBS and create their own masterpiece for sharing. Through a digital photo booth, visitors can buy the boat for $20 or their best offer, name it, pose with it, and then instantly share their custom picture on social media—all the while transforming a life in the process.
Everyone who takes part gets to boast what every Boat Show attendee wants to be able to say: “I just bought a boat.” The shareable pictures will include a link to a microsite (which will be live January 1, 2018), BuyaBoatToday.com, where we’ll reveal, for the benefit of those not present at the Boat Show, that it’s not a boat, but rather a ship—and it’s not just any ship, but rather Mercy Ships. Through our microsite, people from across Canada can also buy and name their own boats and brag to their social networks that they, too, #IJust bought a boat. Here at CYOB we look forward to congratulating the ‘boat buyers’ by showing their generosity on our social media sites including our Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/canadian.yachting/
On hand at the show to support the campaign will be the boat-loving celebrity philanthropist Joan Kelley Walker, made famous for her role on The Real Housewives of Toronto.
Joan is a super enthusiastic boater! “We have ski boats, a Hacker-Craft for cruising, a 59’ Carver, Sea Ray, Glastron, Seadoos, a pontoon boat and a tin work boat.”
As a Muskoka cottager and cruiser, she’s a big fan of the Boat Show and of Muskoka. My favorite place to boat would be Muskoka because the lakes are so beautiful and many of them are connected. It’s fun to go through locks around the Trent canal system too! My favourite time to boat is sunset. There is something so special about the sun and the water at this time.
Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to deliver free, world-class health care services, capacity building and sustainable development to those without access in the developing world. Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 70 countries providing services valued at more than $1 billion, with more than 2.35 million direct beneficiaries.
Each year Mercy Ships has more than 1,200 volunteers from over 40 nations. Professionals including surgeons, dentists, nurses, health care trainers, teachers, cooks, seamen, engineers, and agriculturalists donate their time and skills to the effort. Mercy Ships seeks to become the face of love in action, bringing hope and healing to the poor. For more information, go to www.mercyships.ca
