Jonathan Lawrence Blumberg

I was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1967 and lived in Walmer and went to school at Theodor Herzl. In 1980, after the Soweto riots of 1976, Mom impressed on Dad to leave and we visited Canada in 1979 and then immigrated in 1980 to join many close friends in Toronto. I was thirteen when we landed among a South African expat community at Bayview and York Mills in North York and suddenly life was different. It was a second life. Five years after we emigrated, South Africa exploded in rebellion and a state of emergency.

Today I live with my wife and two daughters in Toronto and our companion cat and dog and run an ISP with my brother and develop websites. The most profound experience of my life was the life and death of our first daughter Sasha Bella Stein-Blumberg. Sasha was born with the liver disease Allagile Syndrome and a severe heart condition called pulmonary atresia. She seemed to thrive through many proceedures and then suffered massive complications at 18 months of age after a second cardiac surgery in December 2005. We lived at SickKids Hospital for 5 months and then brought her home with the Max and Beatrice Wolfe Children's Centre where we enjoyed 5 precious weeks until her death June 20, 2006 at 24 months. We fundraise and work on family-centred care initiatives at SickKids as a tribute to Sasha's life and death and a way to give back.

Work
Current: President, The Wire
Travel 1995: Scottish Claymores store manager
WM Company
Summers during Uni: Camp Coleman CIT instructor, Project Dare, Growth Programme outdoor recreation instructor, Temple Emanu-El teaching assistant
Time off Uni: waiter at Movenpick, Yorkville; OCR go to guy at Blumbergs
Highschool: Camp NAORCA Eagles counselor, The Keg busboy then waiter, Loh's Ice Cream scooper

Education
2006 - George Brown College, Marketing courses with early adopter Tony Russell
1998 - Centennial College, Introduction to the Internet
87-91 - Woodsworth College, Criminology, U of T
1986 - Rothberg International School, Jerusalem
1985 - University College, University of Toronto
1984 - Leaside High School
1981 - York Mills Collegiate Institute
1980 - St Andrews Junior High School, Toronto
1972 - Began at every dollar donated to SickKids via the Sasha Bella Fund for Family Centred Care goes to our patient, family and staff projects.

Passions
Pediatric child and family-centred care and patient safetySasha Bella fund blog, Sasha Bella website and tweats