The giving gene


Cheryl Barish is one of the more than 800,000 Canadians who have witnessed the challenges and devastation that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can inflict on a loved one. She stands out in that crowd for how she has chosen to channel her caring and concern into action.


Many years ago, when Cheryl was six and her brother Calvin was nine, Cheryl’s parents (Dorothy and Daniel Gutkin) had their hands full running a pharmacy and raising their two young children. Cheryl’s father was a well-known Winnipeg pharmacist - the “go-to guy” for his many customers, and he was never too busy to help people at work or when they called him at home.


Suddenly at age 40, Daniel Gutkin was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He became very ill, underwent emergency surgery resulting in an ostomy and spent an entire year in the hospital. Meanwhile, Cheryl’s mother ran the pharmacy, looked after their children and visited him in the hospital. Needless to say, it was a difficult time for the family.


Back in those days, ostomy equipment was not readily available and Cheryl remembers boxes arriving all the way from Minneapolis. In fact, her father was instrumental in establishing the network for getting ostomy supplies to Winnipeg. After his diagnosis, Daniel carried on and continued to live his life in an exemplary fashion. He counseled and helped people with ostomies if they came to see him privately, but he did not talk about his illness as if it was a handicap or something that held him back.


“Both my parents were extremely active 14 The Journal EDITION 3 | 2011


in the community, and my brother and I absorbed that philosophy of life,” says Cheryl.


“My brother Cal is a family physician, and is now the CEO and Executive Director of The Canadian College of Family Physicians. My interests, as well as my careers - first as an orthoptist and then ultrasound technologist - have always included aspects of healing and nurturing. I think all of this came from the example our parents gave us, as well as their own strength and tenacity in the face of diversity.”


This legacy of community-mindedness played out several years ago when Cheryl Barish came across an advertisement for the Winnipeg Gala to benefit Crohn’s and colitis research. A cause close to her heart, Cheryl attended the event, and eventually got more involved to help grow the event.


A busy travel schedule has prevented Cheryl from formally joining the Gala Committee, but Cheryl always finds a way to help. She offers the following tips to CCFC volunteers who are working on a gala or thinking of starting one:


“It’s true every gala needs a dedicated committee; however every dedicated committee appreciates a few extra hands to lighten the load. Here are three simple ways everyone can help their local gala,


whether or not they’re on the committee:


1. Commit to selling a certain number of tables (start with three and grow!).


2. Think about whose services you, or your company, are using – then ask your banker, lawyer, supplier, builder, real estate agent etc. to sponsor the event.


3. Brainstorm new recruits for the committee (just because you can’t join this year, doesn’t mean your brother, niece, aunt, friend, colleague etc. wouldn’t enjoy the experience).


Cheryl and her husband Earl (pictured above) continue to contribute to the Gala in some major way every year in honour of her parents. Dorothy and Daniel Gutkin were together for 64 years before passing away within a week of each other in 2005, leaving behind a loving and growing family that includes Cheryl and Earl, Cal and his wife Mary, six grandchildren and eight great- grandchildren.


There is no doubt that Dorothy and Daniel Gutkin would be immensely proud of their daughter for her contribution to CCFC. In fact, they might have a chuckle that their daughter, whose last name earned her the childhood moniker “The Gut,” would now be so indispensible to the “gutsiest” organization in Canada - CCFC.


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