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by Rebecca BollwittDisclosure: Sponsored Post — Sponsored by Variety BC Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
Variety – the Children’s Charity and Global BC have announced that this year’s Variety Week will take place from Monday, October 17 to Friday, October 21, 2022.
Variety Week Returns to Global BC
Throughout the Week, Global BC will be showcasing the work that Variety does to help children with special needs and their families across the various communities in BC. Global News viewers will learn stories of children who Variety has supported while getting to see firsthand how their lives have been impacted because of Variety’s help.
“With the rising costs of everyday items including food, gas and housing, families are really feeling the pinch right now,” said Josh Pasnak, Interim CEO, Variety BC. “But as history as shown, it’s during the tough times that British Columbians come together which is why we’re confident that with their generous support along with that of our matching sponsors, we’ll be able to help even more kids across the province.”
Support BC Kids with Special Needs
Viewers will see how Variety has expanded their funding to now include psychoeducational assessments making them the only charity to fund private assessments since they began funding autism assessments last year. Also featured will be the launch of the Variety Schools Program highlighting one elementary school that is already participating in the groundbreaking initiative.
“I continue to be amazed at the resilience of the incredible children and families whose stories we share during the week and equally humbled at how Global BC viewers step up each time to give generously,” said Bhupinder Hundal, Global BC News Director & Station Manager. “The support goes a long way in helping some of the province’s most vulnerable.”
Last year’s campaign raised $2,148,793. Donations can be made online, by calling toll-free at 310-KIDS, or by texting “KIDS” to 45678 to make an automatic $20 contribution.
For Halloween at Britannia Mine Museum, the National Historic Site is hosting Treasures of the Deep, full of seafaring festivities, including a colourful sunken shipwreck fantasy world inside the Machine Shop, and a real bone-chilling killer whale skeleton display.
Halloween at Britannia Mine Museum
Where: 150 Copper Dr, Britannia Beach
Located 45 minutes north of Vancouver on the picturesque Sea-to-Sky highway
When: Weekends October 15 & 16, 22 & 23, 29 & 30 10:00am to 3:00pm
Admission: Purchase tickets here for the event only, which include access to the lower museum site.
The Halloween special event rate is $25 for youth and adults, and $20 for kids ages 3-12, which includes the Halloween activities, Treasures of the Deep underground odyssey, museum exhibits, and gold panning.
The Ore & Orcas exhibit is available between October 1st and November 30th with regular admission, including all Halloween dates.
The Museum is still offering the traditional guided underground tours and the BOOM! Mill show via regular admissions. Advanced ticket purchase and reservation is recommended as special events are often sold out.
Inside the Britannia Mine tunnels. Photo by John Bollwitt
Visitors will go on a Treasures of the Deep underground train odyssey in search of hidden bounties, navigate a scavenger hunt for ore samples, and go overboard with Science of the Seafloor experiments where they’ll learn about how mineral deposits are formed under water.
“This year for Halloween, we really wanted to have some fun while making the connection with the underwater minerals world given our close proximity to Howe Sound/ Átl’ka7tsem, Canada’s 19th UNESCO Biosphere Region,” says Laura Minta Holland, Curator at the Britannia Mine Museum. “We took creative inspiration from seafaring adventurers and created a fantasy underwater world that visitors can explore while learning about minerals under the sea.”
In 2021, the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme named the Howe Sound/ Átl’ka7tsem region as Canada’s 19th UNESCO Biosphere Region. Inside the “Terror” Lab for the months of October and November, the Museum is also bringing back Ore and Orcas: The Remediation of Howe Sound/ Átl’ka7tsem, a dynamic visual exhibit showcasing the O120 Orca bone display and other marine specimens, to shine the light on the remediation of the Howe Sound marine ecosystem. The O120 Orca bone display is the only travelling killer whale skeleton in the country and the only offshore killer whale used for educating people about marine conservation and the plight of whales in BC waters.
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Visitors can enjoy fun exhibits and crowd favourites like the underground mine train, gold panning, the historic 20-storey concentrator Mill building and its BOOM! special effects show, the Terralab STEAM learning space, the minerals and gem gallery, and the Beaty Lundin Visitor Centre.
Check the Museum’s website for specific tour times and to purchase tickets in advance. Follow the Britannia Mine Museum on Facebook and Instagram for more information.
Join the 25th annual National Philanthropy Day Luncheon and Giving Hearts Awards ceremony in Vancouver on November 25th. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (“AFP”) Greater Vancouver Chapter invites you to celebrate the incredible individuals, families, and organizations that generously give their time, leadership, and financial support to benefit countless people and communities throughout Greater Vancouver this year.
National Philanthropy Day & Giving Hearts Awards 2022
The Giving Hearts Awards (“GHA”) honour outstanding individuals, volunteers, leaders, fundraisers, philanthropists, and youth of Greater Vancouver’s non-profit and social profit community.
This year, AFP received 30 nominations from charities throughout the Lower Mainland. GHA recipients will be announced for the categories of Spirit of Generosity (formerly Outstanding Philanthropist), Outstanding Legacy Philanthropist, Outstanding Youth Philanthropist, Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser, Outstanding Professional Fundraiser, Outstanding Corporation, and Outstanding Small Business.
“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen inspirational levels of generosity and leadership directed to non-profit organizations in our communities,” said Kyle Tiney, CFRE, Vice President, Community Engagement, Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Vancouver Chapter. “We continue to be inspired and motivated to put a spotlight on some of the individuals and businesses who put so much of their own philosophies on giving back to their community through leadership, philanthropy and volunteerism.”
Global’s Sarah MacDonald will be the emcee and there will be a panel discussion and Q&A facilitated by Tracy London, new President of AFP Greater Vancouver, Co-Executive Director, Education and Engagement, Qmunity, with guests including Kevin McCort, President, and CEO at Vancouver Foundation (other panelists to be confirmed). The discussion will centre around how philanthropy has evolved through our personal and organizational journey towards truth and reconciliation.
Miss604 is a proud sponsor of the Giving Hearts Awards 2022
AFP represents 30,000 members in over 200 chapters in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and China working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education, and certification programs. Follow the local Greater Vancouver chapter on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more info.
Audiences are invited to be voyeurs of seven intimate conversations set within a working Vancouver coffee shop in The Café, October 11-22, 2022. Directed by project creator Fay Nass and Chelsea Haberlin, the site-specific, immersive theatrical work is a day-in-the-life exploration of the cultural mosaic of a Vancouver coffee shop, welcoming audience members to bear witness to the private conversations and experiences of seven unique pairings.
The Café – An Immersive Theatre Experience. Photo Credit Chelsey Stuyt
The Café – An Immersive Theatre Experience
ITSAZOO Productions and Aphotic Theatre, in partnership with PuSh, present the hotly The Café nightly at 7:00pm (Monday-Thursday) and 7:00pm & 9:00pm(Friday & Saturday) at Kafka’s (577 Great Northern Way). Tickets are available now for $25.
Wine, beer, coffee, tea, and baked goods will be available for purchase throughout the show.
Featuring multilingual vignette performances created by nine diverse playwrights, The Café offers a window into the vulnerability and complexity of intimate human connection.
Full of warmth and vulnerability, The Café offers moments of both levity and heartbreak, drawing audiences into the nuances of intimate, emotionally honest interactions between family, friends, and strangers alike. An authentic representation of Vancouver’s diverse cultural makeup, the work features multilingual conversations, including characters conversing in French, Spanish, Polish and Japanese, drawing viewers into the lives of others not just through words, but through body language, facial expressions, and raw emotion.
Audiences of 40 people per performance are encouraged to sit at or near one of seven “performance tables” and watch a play unfold mere inches away from them. Structured as a narrative “choose-your-own-adventure,” audiences can decide to watch a scene reach its conclusion or they can wander around the coffee shop throughout the 90-minute theatrical experience, absorbing fragments of various conversations. Scenes will repeat throughout the evening performance, allowing audience members to witness all seven performances in the order of their own choosing.
The seven scenes are written by nine local playwrights: Sebastien Archibald (Father’s Day), Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton (Mango Cake), Fay Nass and Diana Garcia Hernandez (Submission), Kelsey Kanatan Wavey (50 Cent Lemonade), Derek Chan (Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks), Manami Hara (Anna’s Story) and Anais West (Przyjaciółki).
The cast includes Joey Lespérance and Ben Elliott (Father’s Day), Meghan Hemingway and Kwasi Thomas (Mango Cake), Jacqueline Korb and Montserrat Videla Samper (Submission), Chelsea Rose and Frankie Cottrell (50 Cent Lemonade), Alison Ward and Melissa Oei (Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks), Genevieve Fleming and Yumi Ogawa (Anna’s Story), and Paloma Kwiatkowski and Claire Love Wilson (Przyjaciółki).
Enter to Win
I have a pair of tickets to give away to this immersive theatre experience for the 7:00pm show on October 12th. Here’s how you can enter to win:
The Vancouver Writers Fest is gearing up to once again bring a stellar lineup of Canadian and international authors to the city from October 17–23, 2022. This year, the Writers Fest celebrates its 35th anniversary with 75+ in-person events on Granville Island.
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Vancouver Writers Fest 2022
Some of the authors visiting this year include: Jonathan Escoffery, Wayne Johnston, Guy Gavriel Kay, Marsha Lederman, Dr. Gabor Maté, Noor Naga, Tom Perrotta, Danny Ramadan, Eliza Reid, Iain Reid, Bill Richardson, John Elizabeth Stintzi, Douglas Stuart and Joshua Whitehead.
Explore themes of home and community, identity and storytelling. Featured events will discuss the state of modern journalism, the loss of reproductive rights, the rise of Indigenous storytelling and the ongoing climate crisis, while also offering festival goers their fill of debut novels, poetry and youth programming.
In addition to festival favourites Literary Cabaret, Sunday Brunch and Afternoon Tea, this year’s Writer’s Fest will also feature an in depth discussion on the complexities of family with Kathryn Gretsinger, Chelene Knight, Lisa Moore and David A. Robertson; An Evening with Billy-Ray Belcourt, whose debut novel A Minor Chorus is longlisted for the Giller Prize; a conversation with Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo author, Booker Prize-winner Douglas Stuart;and a look into terrifying wildness of the Anthropocene with John Elizabeth Stintzi. For a full list of events on offer this year, please visit thedigital program guide.
More Featured Events/Authors:
Francine Cunningham, appears in Short Stories, Expansive Worlds on 23 October, 2022.
Chelene Knight, appears in The Alma Lee Opening Night Event: Family Matters on 18 October, 2022.
Bob McDonald, appears in The Future is Now, with Bob McDonald on 23 October, 2022.
What Home Means, curated and moderated by Guest Curator Omar El Akkad on 18 October, 2022.
Latin American Brilliance, moderated by Vancouver’s own Carmen Rodríguez on 19 October, 2022.
Fabulous Historical Fantasy — Featuring literary powerhouses J.M. Miro (a.k.a. Steven Price) and Guy Gavriel Kay on on 19 October, 2022.
Tara McGuire, appearing in Writing The Self and Blending Genres on 21 October, 2022 and 22 October, 2022.
Brian Thomas Isaac, appearing in The Power of Story on 20 October, 2022.
Adriana Barton, appearing in The Afternoon Tea on 23 October, 2022.
