Meinhardt Fine Foods Valentine’s Day Giveaway

Comments 174 by Rebecca Bollwitt

Meinhardt Fine Foods is serving up delicious meals and treats that you can pickup or have delivered right to your door to enjoy Valentine’s Day at home. Whether you’re searching for an indulgent edible gift, a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, or a delicious prepared dinner, they have it available for order online.

Meinhardt Fine Foods Valentine's Day Giveaway
Sweet Hardt Dessert Selection

Meinhardt Fine Foods Valentine’s Day

The three-course dinner for two was created by Meinhardt’s talented chefs and features high quality local ingredients. This meal was designed for simplicity and flavour, simply heat, plate, and serve your delectable dinner. 

If you’re looking to sweeten your Valentine’s Day take a look at the Sweet Hardt Dessert Selection. This tempting selection of treats is perfect for sharing with the one you love. 

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Angela Chapman: Philanthropic Leadership During COVID-19

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Miss604 is the proud Blog Sponsor of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation through the Miss604 Health Check Series. The following has been contributed by their team.

Angela Chapman: Philanthropic Leadership During COVID-19

Angela Chapman: Philanthropic Leadership During COVID-19

Angela Chapman became President & CEO of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation on January 1, 2020.

She was soon faced with the same challenge as other across the globe – leading during an unprecedented pandemic. The pandemic put the Foundation at the heart of a community response to support frontline health care workers.  It was an opportunity to inspire generous donations that galvanized our community’s resolve to defend against COVID-19 and fuel the advancement of medical research that will lead to defeating it.  

A personal debt to health care 

Angela was born and raised in Vancouver.  She was diagnosed in the womb with Rhesus Hemolytic Disease, a condition where antibodies in the mother’s blood destroy the baby’s blood cells. Before a cure for this was found, the disease could cause brain damage, deafness or death to the baby. “In a very real sense, I owe my life to being born in a city and province that has world-leading healthcare.”

“It certainly feels like karma,” Angela says about her return to Vancouver to take a role with the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation after more than two decades in higher education philanthropy.  

While studying at McGill University, she funded her studies by working for the Alumni office, which was her first foray into fundraising.  After studying abroad in Russia and France, Angela successfully applied to medical school in Montreal. In balancing the priorities of a young family, she chose instead to pursue an MBA at Laval University in Quebec City.  Those business studies gave her newfound insights into fundraising, which she put to use when she returned to McGill.

The impacts of giving

Angela spent more than two decades inspiring philanthropy to higher education in Canada, Australia and Singapore. Her passion has been fuelled by the incredible teachers and researchers that she has worked alongside. She recognizes the opportunities and experiences that education had afforded her personally, and acknowledges: “Institutions of higher learning have played such a key role in advancing Canada and our global society, and I was inspired for so many years to play an enabling role in that.”

These experiences gave Angela a first-hand view of the ability for philanthropy to advance society and individuals. Relatively modest investments in new programs or promising young students can have outsized results years later.  This has helped form her philosophy on the differences between charity and philanthropy.

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PADS Puppy Gram for Valentine’s Day: Giveaway

Comments 57 by Rebecca Bollwitt

Send a little puppy love to someone you care about this Valentine’s Day with a PADS Puppy Gram. Each delivery includes a box of delectable Truffle Pig Chocolates and your choice of this year’s “PADS Legends” (Macbeth or Leahy) plush puppies.

PADS Puppy Gram

PADS Puppy Gram for Valentine’s Day

Select one of two options, which both include contactless delivery*:

  • The Original $50: An adorable plush puppy (of your choice) and a box of assorted Truffle Pig Chocolates.
  • The Chocolate Lover $100: An adorable plush puppy (of your choice) and a hatbox of assorted Truffle Pig Chocolates.

Truffle Pig Chocolates is based Burnaby and they proudly source their cacao directly from farmers with strong human values, paying them a premium above world market prices. Their Central American cacao is grown wildly, beyond organic, without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. They have gone above and beyond to make sure their chocolate is made as ethically and deliciously as possible.

Each delivery also includes a customized greeting card, featuring Puppy-Gram spokes-puppers Mosley and Britton.

Just for fun! You can download a colouring sheet, colour it in and then share how you showed the love this month. Take a photo of your masterpiece and share on Facebook or Instagram using #PADSPuppyLove until Valentine’s Day. They’ll feature their favourites and one participant (selected at random) will win a PADS Puppy Gram.

About PADS

Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (“PADS”) breeds, raises and trains fully certified assistance dogs. Their service (mobility & PTSD) and hearing dogs provide life-changing independence to those with physical disabilities other than blindness.

Giveaway

I have a PADS Puppy Gram to give away (The Chocolate Lover, value $100)! Here’s how you can enter to win:

  • Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
  • Like & comment on this Facebook post (1 entry)
  • Click below to post an entry on Twitter
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win #PADSPuppyGram for #ValentinesDay in support of @padsdogs http://ow.ly/LLLy50DqIq4″ quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm Wednesday, February 10, 2021. Winner must be within the delivery area*.

Update: The winner is @ EileenOnya on Twitter

*Delivery area is Abbotsford, Anmore, Aldergrove, Belcarra, Burnaby, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Delta, Langley, Lions Bay, Maple Ridge, Mission, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond, Surrey, Tsawwassen, Vancouver, West Vancouver & White Rock.

Related: A Loving Spoonful CandyGrams 2021

Canada’s Ag Day 2021

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To celebrate Canada’s Ag Day, the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation (“BCAITC”) and We Heart Local BC have partnered to provide a free cook-along with Celebrity Chef Trevor Randle.

Canada's Ag Day 2021

Canada’s Ag Day 2021

When: Tuesday, February 23, 2021 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Where: Online
Tickets: Free, register via Zoom

Participants can enjoy an exciting and informative cooking lesson with Chef Randle from the comfort of their own home in this online webinar. Chef Randle will provide expert instruction as he guides participants through two healthy, BC grown, quick, and budget-friendly recipes.

On the menu is BC Inspired Thai Chicken Curry (vegan option available) and Baked Lemon Pudding with BC Blueberry Compote. British Columbia farmers Lovella Schellenberg and Mickey Aylard will also join Chef Randle to provide fun insights on farming in BC and, webinar participants will be entered into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 3 prize packages valued at $200+ each.

“Canada’s Ag Day is a national initiative that brings special attention to local farmers and the delicious food that we all enjoy. This cook-along will help our community learn about how food is grown and raised, while they are cooking with those ingredients – reinforcing the role of agriculture in their lives.” – Stan Vander Waal, President of BC Agriculture Council.


#CdnAgDay partners include the BC Blueberry Council, BC Chicken Marketing Board, BC Dairy Association, BC Egg, and Save-On-Foods.

You can download recipes online in advance, along with your shopping list.

Related: Agriculture in the Classroom at Home

Coastal Dance Festival 2021

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Dancers of Damelahamid invites audiences to participate in a celebration of Indigenous arts as part of the newly envisioned, virtual presentation of the 14th annual Coastal Dance Festival.

Dancers of Damelahamid. Photo by Chris Randle.
Dancers of Damelahamid. Photo by Chris Randle.

Coastal Dance Festival 2021

When: March 12-18, 2021
Where: Online through Vimeo
Tickets: None required. Donations are encouraged.

The free, online festival will feature the world premiere of a new short dance work in honour of the late Elder Margaret Harris by Dancers of Damelahamid filmed at the Anvil Centre, as well as performances and cultural sharing by many of the festival’s long-standing artists, including the Dakhká Khwáan DancersGit Hayetsk DancersGit Hoan DancersSpakwus Slolem‘Yisya̱’winux̱w Dancers, and David Robert Boxley.

“As we continue to navigate these unprecedented times due to COVID-19, it’s essential that we also celebrate the resilience and strength of our Indigenous communities,” says Margaret Grenier, Festival Executive & Artistic Director.

“While the festival will be presented in a very different way than in past years, we are committed to providing a vital platform for the protection and preservation of Indigenous dance and protocols. Indigenous identity and cultural wellbeing are lived practices and it’s essential for Indigenous people to continuously practice and share their songs and dances in order to maintain them, for the wellbeing of our communities.”

As part of the 2021 online festival, Dancers of Damelahamid will share a preview of a newly choreographed short dance work in honour of the late Elder Margaret Harris—who recently passed on July 15, 2020, at the age of 89—and the profound impact she had on the revitalization of Indigenous song and dance along the Northwest Coast. Margaret Harris and her husband Chief Harris—who passed away in 2010—founded Dancers of Damelahamid in 1967 and have been recognized nationally and internationally for the influence they had in Indigenous performing arts.

Program Highlights

  • Whitehorse’s award-winning Inland Tlingit Dakhká Khwáan Dancers, whose dance group focuses on reclaiming their languages and traditional values through their inherent art form of singing, drumming, dancing, and storytelling.
  • A lively performance featuring mask dances from the Git Hayetsk Dancers, based in Kitsumkalum, B.C. and led by Mike and Mique’l Dangeli.
  • Washington-based Git Hoan Dancers, led by Tsimshian artist and dance leader David Boxley and recognized internationally for their use of masks and high energy performance, who will share a Tsimshian-style song and dance featuring 10-15 performers.
  • Squamish-based dance company Spakwus Slolem, presenting Squamish culture, songs, and dances for the last 20 years, who will perform a traditional welcome ceremony.
  • Alert Bay’s ‘Yisya̱’winux̱w Dancers, whose six dancers and four singers will perform four dances, including a traditional welcome dance and the Hamatsa “Cannibal Dance”—the highest-ranking and most sacred of the T̓seḵa “Winter Ceremonies” of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw.
  • Metlakatla, Alaska’s David Robert Boxley, who will tell ancient stories, once told by the Tsimshian people over thousands of years, in both Sm’algyax and English.
  • Youth artists Casey James and Demetrius Paul.

All 2021 Coastal Dance Festival performances will be available for viewing for free on Vimeo. In lieu of ticket prices, donations to Dancers of Damelahamid are welcome via Canada Helps. Donations will be in support of the dance company’s educational outreach, including workshops, demonstrations, and artist talks with school and youth groups.