For the past 25 years, people have opened their hearts and their wallets to support the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau by donating to the Christmas Wish Breakfast at the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel.
Photograph by: Dan Toulgoet , Vancouver Courier
Burrard Inlet
This Saturday evening the waters of Burrard Inlet will sparkle and shine with light as more than 30 spectacularly decorated yachts pass by in support of the Burrard Yacht Club’s Festival of Lights fundraiser for the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau.
The flotilla will travel from the non-profit group’s North Vancouver clubhouse across to Coal Harbour, along the waterfront past Canada Place, over to the east side of the Lonsdale Quay and then back to the clubhouse. Visitors staying in hotels located along the waterfront and residents of Coal Harbour will have a bird’s eye view. Prior to taking to the water, all participants, as well as numerous club members and guests, will take an unwrapped toy to the clubhouse.
The club hopes its community event will encourage other groups and businesses in the Lower Mainland to support the Christmas Bureau or charity of their choice this season. The booty collected will be donated during the bureau’s 25th annual fundraiser Dec. 13 (see below). Watch for the flotilla between 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday.
Downtown
Speaking of the Christmas Bureau, last year more than 4,000 hungry residents attended the Pan Pacific Vancouver Christmas Wish Breakfast and donated more than 12 tonnes of toys to the charity, along with $15,000 in cash.
This year the Pan Pacific celebrates 25 years of giving by once again offering a hot buffet breakfast in exchange for a new unwrapped toy. Last year, executive chef Bob Wiles and his culinary team served up 160,000 eggs, 12,500 sausages, 4,200 croissants and 500 kilograms of hash browns. People who don’t have time to stop for breakfast can drop off toys at the front of the hotel and receive coffee and a snack. The breakfast crowd will be entertained by the Good Noise Gospel Choir, and the entire event will be broadcast live on Global TV with host Steve Darling and on Rock 101 FM with Bro Jake. The breakfast takes place from 6 to 9 a.m. Dec. 13 at the Pan Pacific, 999 Canada Place.
Marpole
A candlelight vigil will take place Sunday, Dec. 9, at Historic Joy Kogawa House to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, which in 1937 resulted in almost 300,000 deaths following the Japanese capture of that city.
The event is being hosted by the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society and elders and friends of the Japanese-Canadian community who will gather for a discussion and candlelight vigil as a gesture of reconciliation for past wrongs and the hope of justice for all. A screening of the film Torn Memories of Nanjing by Tamaki Matsuoka will be shown as a lead-in to a roundtable discussion. The event is just one of many taking place across Canada to mark the anniversary of the six-week-long massacre. The vigil takes place Dec. 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Ave. Admission is by donation.
Twitter: @sthomas10
