NORTH END — Former Boston Bruins player and Hall of Famer Ray Bourque hosted a reception on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at his North End restaurant, Tresca, for the Forsyth Institute. Among those on hand were Forsyth CEO and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Wenyuan Shi, and Director of ForsythKids Kerry Maguire, who gave opening remarks.

The event will kick off a campaign leading up to Forsyth’s annual fundraising gala, “A Taste and A Toast,” which will be held on June 11, 2020, and to recognize February as National Children’s Dental Health Month.

Forsyth is an independent, nonprofit research institute that has reinvented oral health innovation and care over the past century. The Institute provides free dental care to more than 2,700 children in need throughout Massachusetts each year. The Forsyth Institute and the Boston Bruins have an ongoing partnership to provide mouthguards to student athletes in need.

Event planners Marjorie Clapprood (a former Forsyth Kid) and Chris Spinazzola of Clappazzola Partners have organized the event at Tresca and are instrumental in planning Forsyth’s annual fundraiser. The gala is slated to feature more than a dozen VIP chefs from Boston and Cambridge who donate their time and talents to raise money for the ForsythKids mobile dental program. Since its founding in 1910, Forsyth has provided oral health care for hundreds of thousands of kids in need and has evolved into a world-renowned oral health research institution.

All photos by Bill Brett