Canuck Place Gift of Time Silent Auction
The Gift of Time Gala benefitting Canuck Place Children’s Hospice is Saturday, October 24, 2026 and while the event is sold out, everyone can participate in the silent auction where every bid supports children and families facing serious illnesses across BC and the Yukon.
Canuck Place Gift of Time Silent Auction
- Open to the public starting at 5:00pm on Sunday, October 18, 2026
Gervais Family Story
Each year at the Gift of Time, a family generously shares their Canuck Place story. Krista and Norm Gervais were first introduced to Canuck Place when their daughter Savanna’s cancer relapsed.
“Having a team like the clinicians at Canuck Place was like having a friend to help hold our hands through those hard days,” Canuck Place mom Krista explains.
Navigating your child’s complex illness can be isolating. Constant appointments, managing pain, and tending to grief can be such an overwhelming experience. Canuck Place is there to ease the suffering for families journeying the impossible.
“When our medical team first told us we would be connected to the care team at Canuck Place, my heart sunk. I thought it meant we were done,” Krista shares. “But once the medical team came to talk to us at BC Children’s Hospital, I felt much more relieved.”
Savanna and her family spent many months of relapse treatment without any issues, but in November of 2022, Savanna’s cancer returned with vengeance and took over her body. Savanna and her family were transferred to the Vancouver hospice for end-of-life care and spent a week being comforted, cherished, and loved by family and friends.
“The Canuck Place team was so welcoming and accommodating” Krista shares. In particular, Canuck Place nurse Deanna became an important figure. “Deanna showed us, especially me, so much compassion and love, and made sure I knew I did all I could.”
While staying at the Vancouver hospice, the family experienced music therapy to help them escape their reality and tend to their emotions, created cherished hand molds with the recreation team, and created moments of connection while Savanna’s ongoing stream of loved ones visited the hospice to spend time with her. The care team even helped coordinate “Savanna’s Unicorn Birthday Party” that they treated as her celebration of life. Friends and family gathered at Van Dusen Gardens to make sure Savanna knew how loved she was, complete with princesses, magicians, face painters, and even a mermaid!
Savanna passed away on November 19, 2022, in the loving arms of her family. But her firecracker spirit lives through her family. “Grieving Savanna has taught me to live with more purpose,” Krista shared. “We keep going. And we live for Savanna now.”
For families like the Gervais, a community of d is crucial to their grief process. That intime circle includes their cherished friends and family, but now also includes the compassionate team at Canuck Place—whether that’s through group therapy with the counselling team, or an “amazing hug” from a nurse like Deanna who meant so much.
“Savanna was bigger than life. She impacted everyone she came across, whether it be in person or online. I don’t think that part of her is over. I want to keep that spark alive and I want to help out the community that helped out when we went through our darkest times at Canuck Place.”
The memories created, the comfort shared, and the relationships built continue to carry the Gervais family forward.
About Canuck Place
Canuck Place is a centre of excellence for children’s palliative care. Children with serious illnesses and their families receive specialist-led, family-centred care in BC and the Yukon. A comprehensive program focused on improving quality of life is accessible for over 1,035 children and families addressing physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
Canuck Place offers pediatric advance care planning, provincial 24-Hour Clinical Care Line, pain and symptom management, family support and respite, end-of-life, grief, loss, and bereavement care. Patient families are supported in hospitals and homes, and through two hospices located in Vancouver and Abbotsford with 10 patient beds and 8 family suites. Program services include nursing and physician care, psychosocial and spiritual care, education, music therapy, and recreation therapy.
With a talented team, over 350 volunteers, the Canuck Place Research Initiative, knowledge and training programs for healthcare providers, and patient-family partners, we improve care for children with short lives and the families who love them.
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