The 10th annual Canuck Place Gift of Time Gala took place Saturday, September 27th at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver. The black tie reception and dinner brought together community supporters, families, businesses, and friends in support of an amazing cause. As the Social Media Sponsor, I had the pleasure to attend the event and while following the program in person, I shared messages and photos from attendees using the tag #GOTGala on Twitter and Instagram.
Canuck Place Gift of Time Gala Wrap Up
365 days a year, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice (CPCH) cares for 560 children with life-threatening illnesses and the families who love them. One night a year, the Gift of Time Gala provides a fundraising boost through a live auction, silent auction, raffle, and various other generous donations. The event itself is very special and on Saturday, the first thing my sister and I saw when we entered the Westin Bayshore lobby were inspirational posters on easels, immediately setting the tone of the evening:
Life’s journey is who you are with and how you are with them. Hope. Light Love.
After registering and picking up an auction card, guests were served cocktails, provided with a TELUS photobooth opportunity, and the chance to browse sparkling jewels provided by Cavalier Jewellers before entering the main reception area. Once through the white curtains, silent auction items were laid out by category (for example technology, spa experiences, kids items, etc.) and ready for bids. Resident CPCH PADS dog Poppy Poppy, was also making the rounds, posing with guests and volunteers.
When it was time to enter the grand ballroom the doors opened and I gasped as I walked through to the space and was hit with a dreamy landscape. Simon Cooksley’s red event design was stunning with red Murano glass chandeliers, floral arrangements bursting with dahlias and roses, red candelabras, silver chairs, and sparkling accents.
This is the now. The moment you are in. Live it well with a loving heart.
The evening’s program kicked off with a performance from the MEI Screaming’ Eagles Marching Band and then the evening’s emcee, Global BC’s Chris Gailus, took over on stage.
The program alternated between dinner courses, performances including Alyssa Gutierrez and Affinity Dance, live auctions by Trevor Moravec of Ritchie Bros. Nebraska, silent auction updates and trips to the wine cellar to bid on tens of thousands of dollars worth of old and new world wines.
The evening’s speakers always provide insight, including Jill Schnarr, VP of Community Affairs at TELUS, who announced that over two decades, TELUS has given over $2.5 million over in support to Canuck Place. On Saturday, TELUS matched a $77,000 gift for a live auction item to fund medicine and minor equipment.
Every year a courageous family heads up on stage to tell their story and share their Canuck Place experience. This year it was the brave parents of Sam Treschow, who would have been 24 years old the following day. Jill and Michael Treschow started on the Canuck Place program when Sam was 7 years old. The Kelowna pair said that, “Canuck Place was a haven for our worst kind of fears. Not a haven from them, but for them.” They shared the full story of their journey with Sam at Canuck Place. “There’s a certain kind of gift in knowing life will be short – you want to pack in life and savour it.” What they loved most about Canuck Place was that their whole family was taken care of by the whole staff.
Other speakers included CPCH’s Medical Director, Dr. Hal Siden who said, “We never give up on providing comfort for the kids on our program.”
To say the evening is moving is an understatement. You can’t help but feel deep sorrow when families speak but then at the same time you get lifted up so high with so much love and hope that it is palpable.
As the evening came to a close, before the dance floor opened up, the live auction ramped up. Bids for experiences like a private dinner for 40 with Chef David Hawksworth or a suite at the 5 Seconds of Summer concert went for upwards of $16,000. By the end of the night, over $1 million was raised for Canuck Place.
Donations help fund respite care, medical care, pain and symptom management, meals, recreation therapy, education, art, counselling, music and play therapy for children with life-threatening illnesses and the families who love them. With these generous gifts, Canuck Place can provide care for newborns, children, and teens with respite days which is a large part of what they do. There are currently over 560 kids and families in the Canuck Place program.
You can support Canuck Place at any time through online donations, volunteer opportunities, or a wealth of other avenues. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more information about their organization, their work with BC families (including a second provincial location, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice – Dave Lede House Abbotsford) and ways that you can get involved.
TEDxVancouver, an independently organized TED-style event, returns this year to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with a diverse lineup of local speakers on October 18th. The theme for this year’s event is TILT: “TILT is about exploring and conquering these illusions in order to unleash potential. Attendees can expect an inspiring, thought-provoking program designed to awaken curiosity and shift perspectives.”
What TEDxVancouver
When Saturday, October 18, 2014
Where Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver
Tickets Available online now for $116.39 (including taxes and fees, and lunch)
TEDxVancouver Speakers
Confirmed speakers so far include:
Jeff Mudgett, author of Bloodstains; Dr. Terry Pearson, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at UBC; Coleen Christie, CTV News anchor; Chip Wilson, founder and former chairman of Lululemon; Peter Gregson, award winning cellist; Dr. Jennifer Gardy, Senior Scientist and Nature of Things guest host; Jessica O’Reilly Sexologist, author, TV host; Jay DeMerit retired Whitecaps FC captain, entrepreneur; Treana Peake, designer and founder of Obakki; Victor Chan, writer and co-founder of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education; Charles Montgomery, author and urban experimentalist.
Win Tickets to TEDxVancouver
If you would like to attend this inspirational day of stories, networking, and experiences I have a pair of tickets to give away courtesy of TEDxVancouver. Here’s how you can enter to win your way in:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 5:00pm on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. View previous TEDxVancouver videos online and follow along on Twitter and Facebook for more information.
Update The winner is Jennifer Breakspear!
Music Heals, the charitable foundation formed to fundraise for music therapy and related services across Canada, is hosting a special gala evening of memorable entertainment, food, drinks, dancing, and of course music on October 23rd. Strike A Chord: A Benefit For Music Heals will directly benefit music therapy programs in our community.
What: Strike A Chord: A Benefit For Music Heals
When: Thursday, October 23, 2014 from 7:00pm to 2:00am
Where: The Imperial, 319 Main Street
Tickets: Available online for $150 (+ fee)
Featuring: The Matinee, Kutapira, Chin Injeti, Omar Khan, The Boom Booms, DJ’s Sincerely Hana and Rico Uno, and a special guest appearance by Serena Ryder.
Music Heals’ mission is to support a wide range of music therapy services to communities across Canada by providing ongoing funding for those agencies that develop and use music therapy.
Music therapy is the skillful use of music and musical elements by an accredited music therapist to promote, maintain, and restore mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship to facilitate contact, interaction, self-awareness, learning, self-expression, communication, and personal development. — Canadian Association for Music Therapy.
Current Music Heals programs include: The “Bandwagon” which is the world’s first mobile recording studio, designed specifically to assist Music Therapists working with patients at their bedside; and the iPod Pharmacy. Follow Music Heals on Twitter and Facebook for more information and get your ticket today for Strike a Chord.
The highly-anticipated Fort Langley Cranberry Festival is coming up on Saturday, October 11, 2014 from 10:00am to 4:00pm in the heart of the Village of Fort Langley.
Presented by the Fort Langley BIA, this free festival will have a pancake breakfast, food trucks, entertainment, kids’ play areas, unique vendors, participation from local shops and studios, nearly 100 vendors, and of course the freshest of cranberries.
The Fort itself will also have 50% off admission (Saturday only) with cranberry-themed programming all the way through Sunday and Monday that long weekend.
Discover the history of cranberry use by First Nations people in British Columbia, and how the Hudson’s Bay Company exported these treasured fruits in the 1850s. A cranberry treasure hunt will take place throughout the weekend, you can watch a barrel-making demonstration, make cranberry bannock at 11:00am, 2:00pm and 4:00pm, play cranberry-related games and more.
There will also be participation from
The Fort Wine Co. who was generous enough to let Marc Smith and I stroll through their flooded cranberry bogs last year. It was definitely a Vancouverite’s “bucket list” experience!
About BC Cranberries
I researched cranberries around the region for a piece I wrote for Tourism Vancouver last year and found all kinds of interesting facts:
- The cranberry is one of only three commercially-grown fruits that are native to North America.
- Traditionally, cranberries were hot trading commodities at Fort Langley (aka the Birthplace of BC) as local First Nations used them for food, dyes, and medicine. They would trade cranberries for HBC blankets, beads, and other items. In fact in 1858, cranberries were actually worth more than salmon.
- Of all the cranberries harvested in Canada every year, about 60% are grown for Massachusetts-based Ocean Spray, to which most BC cranberry growers belong as a cooperative — as a result 90% of BC cranberries are shipped to the USA.
- Approximately 50% of BC’s crop is used to make sweetened dried cranberries, 40% is made into juice, 9% is sold whole frozen and 1% is sold fresh, according to the Government of BC.
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