October 16, 2017
Tony’s youngest daughter, Hazel, was born at 24 weeks & 6 days gestation. She weighed 780 grams (1.7 lb).
“Tiny girl, tiny hands, they hold the heart of this grown man.”
Tony wrote a song titled Tiny Girl shortly after he and his wife Courtney brought their youngest daughter Hazel home from the Royal Columbian Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Although the song was a private reflection on the events that had occurred, Tony felt a need to give back to other families that would need NICU care. After sharing the idea with some friends, they put together a live video to help bring awareness to the importance of NICU’s and started a fundraiser that raised $2,300 benefiting the Sandra Schmirler Foundation. Tony chose to support this foundation because their vision is one where every hospital’s NICU has the proper equipment to save babies born too soon or too sick. In 2021, Tony contributed an updated video and live recording of Tiny Girl to Sandra Schmirler Foundation’s TSN Scotties Tournament Telethon, which raised over $700,000 in a single day. Tony hopes that this song resonates with everyone who hears it and that it will inspire them to donate to NICU foundations for years to come.
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The Sandra Schmirler Foundation sees a future where every hospital NICU has the necessary life-saving equipment to handle any emergency and save the lives of babies born premature and critically ill.
Their dream is that all babies born too soon, too small, or too sick will be cared for in a NICU equipped with state of the art life-saving equipment close to their homes, family, and friends.