TORONTO – The topic of divorce doesn’t often inspire a celebratory mood – unless perhaps you’re a business person with a creative venture in mind.
Rob Pagetto, a Toronto-native and entrepreneur, threw his first “divorce party” in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a few years ago after he overheard a group of women giggling over their own “divorce party” plans. Pagetto said he ran with the idea and it paid off. Thousands of divorcees attended his event.
So with a recent move back to Toronto, he knew he wanted to do try to plan a party again. He teamed up with fashion stylists, musicians and Toronto-based author, Deborah Moskovitch, to throw the largest divorce party in Canada.
Friday’s party in Toronto is meant to be a fun, celebratory, fashion-forward event to help divorcees, singles or anyone suffering a loss to find ways to get back in the game, so to speak.
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According to Statistics Canada, “grey divorce” has been steadily growing among those 55 and over, with rates expected to increase as more people continue to age. While marriage remains the predominant family structure in Canada, it only represents 67 per cent of Canadian families, down from 70.5 per cent a decade ago. And for the first time, the number of common-law families in Canada outstripped the number of single-parent families in 2011, another sign of the declining popularity of matrimony.
Pagnetto said rather than “sulking” about divorce stats, he hopes to empower and help people embrace the potentially big life changes that can happen during this time.
More than 300 people are expected to attend the event at Toronto’s Capitol Theatre. Tickets cost $40 at the door with some proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
with files from Postmedia News
Using data from the most recent release Statistics Canada census release, Global News created an interactive map showing the number of divorced people in the GTA.
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