HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS: Nearly 700 people spilled into seven different rooms over five floors of the Vancouver Club, each decked out in an annual holiday theme, to celebrate A Year In A Night, Zajac Foundation’s annual hootenanny. Guests dined and danced the night away to local musicians, bands and DJs while raising funds for the Zajac Ranch for children, a camp for kids and young adults with chronic, life threatening and/or debilitating conditions. More than $100,000 was raised through the evening’s raffle and custom-cool silent auction. Macdonald Development Corp.’s Rob Macdonald was also honoured with the Zajac Young Professionals’ Raising The Bar award. Macdonald spoke of the long-standing influence ranch founder Mel Zajac had upon him. Earlier in the evening, the 86-year-old was seen getting his groove on under the disco ball in the ballroom.
COMMUNITY BUILDERS: The founder of Sher, an organization for queer South Asians and their allies, and Dignity House, an initiative to provide affordable housing for the LGBT seniors, Alex Sangha was one of eight community builders cited at the second Pride Legacy Awards. Sangha, a gay writer, was cited in the safe spaces category. Yours truly hosted the second annual awards at the Roundhouse Community Centre, presented by the Vancouver Pride Society and created to honour outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to Metro Vancouver’s LGBT communities. The other seven winners were: Martin Rooney (sexual health), Dean Nelson (sports), Carl Meadows (volunteer), Dave Deveau (arts), Chris Morrisey (leadership), Andrew Shopland (youth) and Ron Dutton, recipient of the lifetime achievement award for his longstanding work chronicling the city’s queer history.
PAIN RELIEF: Society darling Naz Panahi once again fronted the second ARThritis Soirée, which she founded in support of the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada. More than 200 guests — business and community leaders, doctors and other health care professionals — gathered with an appreciation for art and a desire to support arthritis research. Sophie Lui and yours truly emceed the standup affair. Guests enjoyed an evening of fabulous hors d’oeuvres, drinks and photographic art, while contributing to ARC’s efforts to finding answers and saving lives of those living with arthritis and chronic pain. An impressive $248,000 was generated. Notables in attendance included ARC executive director Shauneen Kellner and ARC creator and scientific director Dr. John Esdaile. More than 600,000 British Columbian’s are living with more than 100 types of arthritis.
