The White Spot Christmas Day Lunch for Charity continues a heartwarming yuletide tradition for the 16th consecutive year. Staff at the Kingsway Vancouver and Richmond Centre White Spot locations will donate their time and tips on Christmas Day to support local charities.
White Spot Christmas Day Lunch for Charity
Friends and family are invited to join the merriment and enjoy award-winning Legendary burgers and other Spot Classics at either location on Christmas Day to help support two deserving local charities. The two restaurants hope to beat last year’s combined fundraising total of $21,276.
Where: Richmond Centre (Unit 1902 – 6551 No. 3 Road) When: Monday, December 25, 2017 from 11:00am to 3:00pm Cause: Richmond Hospital Foundation
Where: Kingsway (1476 Kingsway at Knight Street) When: Monday, December 25, 2017 from 11:00am to 3:00pm Cause: Variety – The Children’s Charity
Since the Christmas Day Luncheon’s inception, more than $201,000 has been generated. Follow White Spot on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date on their latest menu offerings and promotions.
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by Michelle KimDisclosure: Review — Michelle's views are her own. She was given media tickets for review purposes. Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
In keeping with our yearly mother-daughter holiday tradition, my mother and attended The Nutcracker, and this time we saw Goh Ballet’s rendition, which was the most dynamic version of the ballet I have seen to date.
Goh Ballet has been producing its version of The Nutcracker for the past 9 years. Principal dancers this year are Elizabeth Murphy (Sugar Plum Fairy) and Jerome Tisserand (Cavalier Prince) from the Northwest Pacific Ballet (out of Seattle). Dancers also include the National Ballet of China’s Dianya Wu (Snow King) and Ziyu Xu (Snow Queen).
The performance had this wonderful layering effect in ability and style, which gave a textured quality to performance that ran throughout the evening. On top of the incredible dancing, I was thrilled to see one of my local favourite Film & TV actors, Jacqueline Robbins, one half of the Robbins twins, who played a very animated and fun Grandmother.
The Vancouver Opera Orchestra performed Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s score live, there was a children’s chorus that sang in one of the scenes, and with the elaborate sets and so much detail given to costume and props (including foam looking like cheese being dropped by the little mice), I was constantly stimulated throughout the evening.
However, what I really liked about attending this performance, was the company—the audience was so diverse in age and culture.
You can still catch The Nutcracker on stage at The Centre on December 15, 18 and 19 at 7:30pm, December 16 at 2:00pm and 7:30pm, and December 17 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are available online through Ticketmaster.
This winter the Vancouver Chinese Lantern Festival, the largest festival of its kind in Canada, will feature 35 illuminated displays transforming over 14 acres of the PNE grounds at Hastings Park into an explosion of light and colours.
Vancouver Chinese Lantern Festival
Where: PNE Grounds, enter off the corner of Hastings and Renfrew Dates: December 15, 2017 (closed Christmas Day) until January 21, 2018 Times: Friday to Saturday 5:00pm to 11:00pm, Sunday to Thursday 5:00pm to 10:00pm Tickets: Available online now through TicketLeader. Children under 3 years old are free. Group Rates available for groups of 10 and more, call 604-252-3663 for more info.
Lantern festivals started during the Han Dynasty, about 2,000 years ago. For centuries, lanterns festivals have been lit on the fifteenth day of the first month in the Chinese calendar to pray for a good harvest, and to gain favor of Taiyi, god of heaven. Today, the lantern festivals are still held each year around the country, with each major Chinese city having its own light festival. In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, and only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones.
In modern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex designs such as the ones that will be on display at the PNE. Zigong, hometown of the Lantern Festival, has some of the best lantern artisans in China where skills and a tradition of craftsmanship are passed down through the generations. The Vancouver event will feature Dragon, White Pagoda, Kylin, and Huabiao Column lanterns, each lantern symbolizing a Chinese sage or legend.
In addition to the lantern displays, the festival will also include nightly performances in the PNE Amphitheatre: 6:30pm & 8:30pm on Sundays through Thursdays and 6:30pm, 8:30pm & 9:30pm on Fridays & Saturdays. Featuring Face Changing, Acrobatics, Plate Spinners, Folk Dance, Jar Balancing and Erhu. These exciting performances are family friendly, and are sure to wow. The lantern festival will also feature a food and beverage program and additional children’s activities.
Win Tickets
I have a family pack of admission tickets (two adults and two children valued at $55) for the debut of the world-renowned Vancouver Chinese Lantern Festival. Here’s how you can enter to win:
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Click below to post an entry on Twitter
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I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, December 20, 2017.
Earlier this season, I shared the story of BC midwife Jennica Rawstron, a volunteer midwife supervisor with Cuso International in Ethiopia. She worked alongside local midwives, who were helping women through difficult deliveries – often in situations that most Canadian women would never face. As a Canadian midwife, Jennica was tasked with training her Ethiopian counterparts at a hospital.
This season, you can give to the Cuso CAN Fund, which supports Cuso International’s high priority maternal and child health projects in Ethiopia, Benin, Nigeria, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This holiday season, you can give pregnant women in Ethiopia the gift they want more than anything else: to deliver their babies safely. Women like Abeba, who arrived at Pawe Hospital, bleeding, in labour and in distress.
Her husband Mulu sat by her side, hoping the bleeding would stop. Praying for her life and the life of their unborn child. Through your support, midwives at the hospital had been learning how to handle birth emergencies from vounteers like Jennica.
Because of their training, they were able to stop Abeba’s bleeding and called a doctor to perform a c-section. Shortly after, Abeba delivered a healthy baby boy.
When you support the health of moms and babies, your gifts will have a ripple effect within families and communities. Healthy mothers can take better care of their children, and they can work to lift their families out of poverty. Healthy children can go to school, realize their potential, and build the future of their communities and countries.
In Canada, most mothers and babies have access to the care they need in hospitals, or at home through the services of midwives. But in Ethiopia there are fewer qualified health workers. As a result, Ethiopian mothers and babies are far more likely to lose their lives from causes that are easily preventable with the basic health care and resources.Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
This holiday season, you can give pregnant women in Ethiopia the gift they want more than anything else: to deliver their babies safely. Women like Abeba, who arrived at Pawe Hospital, bleeding, in labour and in distress.