Recently Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation approached Juno award-winning County singer Jason McCoy to take on the role of their Honourary Chair.  And for those of you who are familiar with McCoy, you will know that he never does things halfway!  Beyond his singing career both as a solo artist and with the band he conceptualized and formed, the Road Hammers he also finds time to: host a syndicated radio show “The Country Sounds Canadian”, host a show segment called Road Trip on A TV, and recently he and fellow Road Hammer starred (and won!) ON OLN network’s Mantracker.

McCoy’s recognition and awards include:  6 OCPFA Awards, 1 Gold album (Playin’ for Keeps), 19 CCMA Award Nominations, 2 CCMA awards for Group or Duo of the Year, a CCMA for  Best Video, a Juno Award for Country Recording of the Year, 5 Juno Award Male Country Vocalist of the Year Nominations, a CMA Awards Global Artist of the Year and a Juno Nomination for Country Album of the Year.

A song written by McCoy was part of the soundtrack of the 2006 feature film Bon Cop, Bad Cop and he has performed with stars such as Keith Urban and Nickelback at venues across the world, notably China and Australia.  You can visit McCoy’s own site JasonMcCoy.com to find out more about him.  You can also visit site such as Grand Ol Opery to see an early performance;  George Stroumboulopoulos to see kudos  given to McCoy by Jason Priestly the former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star and director of CMT Canada’s “The Road Hammers”  and George on The Hour,  and at the Socan awards on CTV where he is interviewed with stars such as Jann Arden.

Some fun six steps removed ttrivia on McCoy: His album Sin, Lies and Angels was produced by Grammy winner Colin Linden (who also  produces for Bruce Cockburn) Linden also worked on a film project called “O Brother Where Art Thou” where he met George Clooney.  Clooney arranged a walk on for Colin as “Father Scott” in “Intolerable Cruelty”, marrying Catharine Zeta-Jones to Billy Bob Thornton while playing Simon & Garfunkel’s “April Come She Will”.  The guitar he plays was used by Jason on Sins, Lies and Angels.  Richard Bell, formerly of The Band performs on this album as well.

To support charities, McCoy has fund-raised, shaved his head, drove around in an 18 wheeler for a week, made a commercial with ATV, included a charity on his CD liner notes, and in short was all in in terms of creating awareness for a good cause.

Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation is delighted to have McCoy’s support in creating a greater awareness of the Foundation itself and in turn its need to secure increased funding to support what will be the even great needs of Georgian Bay General Hospital as its Master Plan rolls out over the few years, the first phase of which is an expanded Emergency Department.  And what could be more fitting as McCoy’s very supportive wife is a staff member of GBGH working in…..the Emergency Department!

You can be a hero in your own right in supporting GBGH Foundation in our mission to ensure that Georgian Bay and Georgian Bay General Hospital both remain Our Home….Our Hospital. There are many opportunities to do so and I encourage you to visit www.gbghf.ca to explore options, contact the Foundation offices at 526-1300 ex. 3138 or have a chat with one of our truly remarkable Board members (names available on our website).

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By Susan Laycock, cfre, cae

Executive Director,

Georgian Bay General Hospital Foundation