Evelyn was born with Hao-Fountain syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. She was often at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, battling infections, recovering from multiple heart and abdominal surgeries and receiving frequent treatments.

“When she was little — two or three — if we drove by without going in, she would get upset,” Marie-Claire says.

It’s where she learned preschool songs and spent countless hours with talented music therapist, Sarah Van Peteghen. For Evelyn, who had music on almost all the time — including the Jonas Brothers, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes — those were the things that allowed her to just be a kid.

“Her whole body language changed when she was listening to music. She danced and ran around and it just energized her.”
— Marie-Claire, Evelyn’s mom

“She’d said many times, actually, the months before she died, she wanted to do a fundraiser for the hospital,” Marie-Claire says. The family established the Evelyn Shanahan Endowment Fund for Creative Play in support of music and art therapy at the hospital.

Donations began coming in from those who had known Evelyn, and the initiative to honour her legacy snowballed into further fundraising events like the dog-friendly fair, Pupchella.