GOOD FORTUNE: AIDS Vancouver’s Celebrity Dim Sum celebrated its 10th anniversary. This year’s outing attracted a dozen media personalities and local darlings who signed up to push dim sum carts. Between steamers of tasty, bite-size dumplings, attendees participated in fundraising activities to support vital programs that exist thanks to the generosity of donors. As always, the party would not be complete without the popular chicken feet eating contest. Four contestants vied for the coveted title. Having never put a foot in his mouth, first-timer Darryl Davis earned top honours devouring the braised claws in record time.
DREAMCATCHER: Ronald McDonald House’s gala fundraiser, A Night to Dream, brings much-needed donations to fund housing for B.C. families and children travelling from home to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»for life-saving treatments. The 15th staging of the swish dinner and auction, chaired by Lindsey Turner and presented by the Beedie Group, raised $475,000 in proceeds — up $60,000 from the year before thanks to the heartwarming stories shared by Ronald McDonald House families. More than 400 dynamic influencers and business leaders, including Ronald McDonald House B.C. and Yukon’s CEO, Richard Pass, came together for the lavish fundraising effort at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel. Thanks to the generosity of patrons, Ronald McDonald House is able to offer a home-away-from-home, a community of support and a restful space for families to heal when they most need it, says Turner.
OLD AND NEW: Marking its 25th anniversary, the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Heritage Foundation presented its annual fall fundraiser at the landmark Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Club. More than 150 heritage supporters — young and old — filed into the venue to tour the historic space, imbibed in fine wine and hors d’oeuvres and a enjoyed a dose of history from historian Michael Kluckner, author of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Remembered and Vanishing Vancouver. A party with a purpose, the event also featured a silent and live auction, giving attendees ample opportunity to support the organization’s ongoing conservation efforts. By evening’s end, executive director Judith Mosely and her gala committee would post a reported $25,000 from the heritage hootenanny.
GROWING AWARENESS: Growing Chefs is a registered charity that teaches kids about growing and cooking food by sending a chef and community volunteers into the classrooms. Fifty elementary schools benefited this past year. Looking to educate more kids in more schools, the society hosted its eighth annual Farm to Forks Harvest Kitchen Party. Yours truly, along with Margaret Gallagher, fronted this year’s staging at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. A capacity crowd piled into the cooking school to explore the academy’s eight classroom kitchens, each occupied by a team of chefs, local producers and winemakers who collaborated on delicious wine-paired plates for the taking. Between bites, attendees poured over an impressive array of food and wine-related auction items. A chef’s dinner by Burdock and Co.’s Andrea Carlson — a Growing Chefs champion — would fetch the night’s top bid of $5,000, contributing to a successful night that cooked up $40,000 for the children’s urban agricultural program.Â
