Where: Jack Poole Plaza, Vancouver Convention Centre When: Friday, December 6, 2013 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm Admission: Free public event
Join host Steve Darling from Global TV for an evening of entertainment including the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, Showstoppers, BC Lions and Felions, Santa and his elves, and more. Enjoy complimentary hot chocolate and cookies supplied by Tableau Bistro Bar and Homer St Cafe and Bar.
This year when you support local charities by purchasing a bulb on the tree you’ll also be entered into a prize draw. Purchase 5 bulbs for $5 or 15 for $10.
Benefitting charities include the CKNW Orphans’ Fund, the Trevor Linden Foundation, Sarah McLachlan School of Music, BC Lions Courage for Kids, Honour House Society, Canada Company, Empty Stocking Fund, and Lasting M.A.G.I.C. Society. In the last six years the Vancouver Tree Lighting Celebration has raised over $650,000 for local causes.
I sunk into my own bed at around 7:15 this morning as the sun was beginning to brighten up the sky. I walked home from the Covenant House Sleep Out on West Pender at Hamilton because I somehow had the energy after only getting about 2.5 hours of sleep. Traffic lights changed for no one, steam rose up from vents on the sidewalk.
I kept thinking about the excruciatingly cold night I just spent in a concrete parking lot with 29 other executives and local media armed with with nothing more than a piece of cardboard and a sleeping bag each. I also thought about how the youth we were supporting through Covenant House’s crisis shelter wouldn’t be able to wake up from their cardboard beds and go home to their families like we were doing.
When the email from Covenant House came in just before 8:00am saying that we raised over $327,000 to keep their crisis shelter operating 24 hours a day for 1 month straight — servicing 54 youth — it made it all worthwhile.
Photo by Covenant House
Marty Staniforth, Senior Development Officer at Covenant House, told us earlier in the evening that this would be the worst event we’ve ever attended — it was meant to be uncomfortable — and he was right in that regard. However, prior to heading out at 10:00pm, we spent some time at Covenant House speaking with some of their youth and touring their facility. We learned about their various levels of care such as the Crisis Shelter, Drop in Centre, Street Outreach, and Rights of Passage.
“Many of the kids have lived with violence or the threat of violence for much of their young lives. Feeling safe is a right we all have but one these kids have not enjoyed.”
We split off into groups and spoke with youth clients who volunteered their time to tell us their stories. It was encouraging to meet kids who went from being homeless, to the crisis shelter all the way through to Rights of Passage, Covenant House’s program that prepares them for the bigger world.
Those in Rights of Passage actually pay (an affordable) rent and get full access to programs provided that they have a job or they are in school. They end up learning basics like grocery shopping and budgeting, and once they are through the program (6 months to 2 years) they are supported when they eventually move out, even welcomed to return for the weekly communal dinners. The care just keeps going to ensure the youth become self-sufficient, gainfully employed, successful individuals.
Once we saw Covenant House’s work in action, and met some very brave and persevering individuals, we picked up our scraps of cardboard and went outside to the parking lot just off the alley. While we were settling in for the night one of the youth we met in the hallways came outside and walked over to a small group of us sitting toward the back of the lot. She had blankets in her arms and asked us to take them. She wanted to make sure that we would be warm and comfortable throughout the night. I was floored. Covenant House’s care and compassion is contagious.
Photo by Covenant House
Throughout the night I smelled car fluids from the ground below me, used a scarf as a pillow, heard random shouts and passing conversations, and watched the moon cross the sky as puffs of my own breath clouded my view. Every now and then adjustments needed to be made when the cold pierced through my sleeping bag or a body part turned to pins and needles. It was uncomfortable, it was freezing, and I already want to sign up again next year.
Over 600 participants around North America slept out for their local Covenant House last night. Raising over $3 million. Vancouver had 5% of the participants but raised 10% of the funds.
A big THANK YOU to the Covenant House staff who watched over us all night and shared their passion for their work.
Snow is on the mountains, ski season is here, and there’s plenty to do around Metro Vancouver this weekend. You can catch Late Night Movies at the Rio Theatre on Friday, family fun at the Surrey Tree Lighting Festival on Saturday, and enjoy markets and ice skating on Sunday. Options are listed below and if you have any other events and activities to share, send me a message to have it included.
Surrey Tree Lighting Festival by John Bollwitt on Flickr
You can check out the full monthly event list to plan ahead at any time. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for frequent updates about local events and community happenings.
Santa Claus is coming to town in the 10th annual Rogers Santa Claus Parade on December 1st. While the parade in downtown Vancouver is the main attraction, it’s also part of a greater celebration and event that includes the community, local charities and businesses, and over 300,000 spectators.
The parade begins at 1:00pm on Sunday, December 1, 2013 and features 65 marching bands, choirs, festive floats, and community groups. Setting out from Georgia and Broughton, it travels east on Georgia to Howe, turns south on Howe, and finishes at Howe and Davie.
Coast Capital Savings Christmas Square
Beginning at 10:30am on Sunday, December 1, 2013 the Coast Capital Savings Christmas Square will offer free family entertainment in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery with a gingerbread decorating station, face painting, Letters to Santa station, balloon twisting, and an entertainment stage featuring several music and dance performances.
Photos with Santa at Robson Square
The Robson Square ice rink will be home to Santa for the day (in between his parade appearances) and photos can be taken with the jolly old elf. Ice skating is free at Robson Square and skate rentals are available for $4.
Giving Back
The Rogers Santa Claus Parade is one of the largest food and fund raising events for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. Since 2004, the Parade has collected $110,000 and more than 67,380 lbs of food for hungry families in the Lower Mainland. On parade day, spectators are encouraged to bring a monetary or non-perishable food donation for the Food Bank. For each dollar donated, the food Bank can purchase three dollars’ worth of food. Donation drop-off stations will be setup at the Coast Capital Savings Christmas Square.
Temperatures have been below zero for a little while now so outdoor ice skating in Vancouver is taking centre stage. Let’s take a look back at the City of Vancouver Archives at this winter activity over the years:
Outdoor Ice Skating in Vancouver
1929: Skating on Lost Lagoon. Archives item#: CVA 99-1975. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.
1929: Archives# CVA 99-1976 & CVA 99-1977. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.
1929: Skaters at Trout Lake. Archives# CVA 99-1902. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.
People have been enjoying outdoor skating for the last century at least, when the conditions have been right. The Sunday Sun had a letter to the editor in 1936 urging the city and park board to create safe skating surfaces outdoors (see clipping to the right).
Back in 1962 an article in The Sunday Sun announced that Coal Harbour froze over as did Beaver Lake and Lost Lagoon.
“By mid-morning about a quarter of an inch of ice covered the harbor in the area between the Burrard and the Royal Vancouver yacht clubs… …A thin coating of ice also formed on parts of False Creek and in Fisherman’s Cove in West Vancouver.”
On November 15, 1955 The Vancouver Sun published a public notice that it was unsafe to skate on Trout Lake however, Beaver Lake remained the only safe outdoor skating area in the city. In 1969 a post in The Sunday Sun warned residents that it was unsafe to skate at Lost Lagoon, Beaver Lake, and Trout Lake — a notice with which we are familiar in recent winters.
1930s: Skating on Lost Lagoon. Archives# CVA 1376-669.
