Fundraisers
Thank you all! Through the various fundraising activities in the year such as a benefit concert, a symposium, auction, chocolate sale, we raised $33,500 to benefit charities such as the Canuck Place Children's Hospice ($5,250), Miracle Network - BC Children's Hospital Foundation ($10,259), UNICEF ($13,500) and March of Dimes ($4,491). With these funds, we were able to generally help 560 families at the hospice. About 7,500 mothers will now receive neonatal tetanus shots. Our funds to the Hospital foundation will support cancer research that will eventually impact 84,000 children. In total, 125 student members and about 100 donors (corporate & individual) were involved in all of the activities for the year.
Harmonies for Hope 2014
Harmonies for Hope is a concert that gathers many talented performers with diverse repertoire to raise funds for the Canuck Place Children's Hospice and BC Children's Hospital.
Helping over 400 children and youth suffering from life threatening illness, the Canuck Place Children's Hospice is a leader in palliative care in north America. It not only excels in providing a comfortable place of repute care, but also offers a caring service to the families of those children who are in their difficult times. On the other hand, the BC Children's Hospital is the sole full-service, paediatric acute care hospital in the province. It serves children from BC and YT and treated over 81,000 children in the past year.
This year, we featured various musicians playing wind and strings instruments and orators presenting their favourite proses. We were also very appreciative to have Jingjing Cao, the Ms. Teenage Burnaby 2014, to join us in speaking for our cause. Moreover, we also received letters of support from the BC Premier, Vancouver Mayor, Kiwanis Pacific Northwest Governor, and Kiwanis Club of Richmond.
Symposium
With the Symposium, we brought in inspirational speakers to address hot topics and offer future study and career advice for the youth in our community. At the February Symposium, we invited actor Josette Jorge, chef Quang Dang, and aviation bussinessman Sandy Moreland.
In the November Symposium, we had the luck to bring Dr. Janette Lim a member of NACAC, Dr. Vlad Vintila a former preceptor with PhD at Columbia University, Ms. Shannon Daly a member of Richmond School Board, and Preston Lim the founding president of this Club and a sophomore at Princeton University. While this event acts as a initiative program, we also collected entrance fee by donation for UNICEF's Eliminate Project.
Volunteer Service
Salvation Army Clothing Drive
We spent a couple weeks gathering unused clothing from our own homes, neighbours, and friends. Then, we delivered them to the Salvation Army Thrift Store so that the staff there could organize, refurbish, and redistribute them to those who cannot afford clothing at a normal price range. It was quite exhausting but definitely showed its worth it on the delivery day!
Canada International Film and Television Festival
At CIFTF, we were in charge of the entire ushering system, planning the seating and welcoming the guests through. Although this was the first festival of this newly born organization and our first chance of working at professional standards, it was a fruitful learning experience that asks for elaborate planning and extemporaneous adjustments.
Special Children's Christmas Party
We partnered up with SCCP, an organization that strives to establish magical Christmas for those kids who cannot afford it. There were 1700 deserving children—tots to teens— who have been selected by 300 charities, schools, community groups and government organizations. They are from all over the lower mainland and as far away as Kelowna.
Besides, the caregivers who attended our special guests include siblings who serve as part-time assistants. They, too, were the most welcomed participants in this delightful day, along with their adult family member(s).
There were non-stop stage entertainment, strolling clowns, face painters, games with a host of prizes, snack foods and soft drinks, Santa’s Huggable Hall of 7,000 toys, and lots more!
Our Operation Mandate: To help bring Joy to Their World!
National Pancake Day
March 3rd is National Pancake Day where people can enjoy a free stack of buttermilk pancakes. Then, a donation is encouraged in support of our local hospital. Oftentimes the restaurant staff is just too busy to help spread the word about why National Pancake Day is so important and how each donation goes to your local hospital. So we decided to voice for the cause!
It's a great way to re-engage with CMN and make a difference locally. It was a great way to give back and help our community. Who doesn't love pancakes?!
BC Children's Hospital (BCCH)
Christmas Chocolate Sale
This project is created to help raise funds for BC Children's Hospital and meet the chocolate demand of pre-Christmas month. We worked out a deal with Purdy's Chocolates to get 25% discount. Additionally, we gathered banks to give matching donations of equal value to our sales.
We ran the sale from knocking on doors to setting up booths on streets. Although the november breeze was freezing, many of us were quite eager to get out in the morning!
We were able to make the planned month-long sale in a week, selling over 120 boxes of chocolate.
BCCh LABORATORY tour
Before we began to volunteer at BCCH, a rare opportunity due to the extremely demand, we were lucky to get a tour of the interior lab, where new discoveries were made behind the scenes. From talking to lab members, we got to learn a lot more about diabetes and appreciate the amount of work put into making medical breakthroughs.
Harmonies for Hope 2015
Cheque Presentations
