| Membership
& Awards Event
Submitted
by Tim West
Greater Vancouver
 How successful was the
Membership & Awards
evening of November 10? Well, 55 people attended, including 20
guests, 8 members’ spouses and 3 charities’ representatives.
It was another opportunity to induct a new CPC member, to recognize
special achievements and to award funds to charities totaling $29,350.
The $233 raised for door prizes rounded out the evening nicely.
(Above: Past President Ken Thorhaug with President
Dave Munday.)
For the benefit of the guests, President Dave
Munday offered a short yet impressive history of CPC – a fitting
prologue for Ken Thorhaug who then introduced Brian Daniel.
The Club members warmly welcomed Brian as the newest inductee into CPC
Greater Vancouver.
  There was no shortage of acknowledgements as Penny
O’Rourke thanked members Dick Tingley, Hugh Tucker, Hank
Strubin and Gordie Kern, all of whom have been members of CPC
Greater Vancouver for more than 30 years, for their continued dedication
to CPC and the community. John Nunn also acknowledged Ron
Bozzer and presented him with his “Patron Pin”. Ken
Thorhaug thanked major sponsor RE/MAX for their continued support
for the Plywood Cup fund raising event and their commitment to future
sponsorship.
(Above left: Linda Higgins and Julie Schindell,
guests of Ron Bozzer. Above right: Dick Tingley with guests Liz
McQueen and Kathy Homewood.)
Cheque presentations where made to the following:
Big
Brothers of the BC Lower Mainland
Brian Boone presented
Azmina Allibhai of Big Brothers of the Lower Mainland with a cheque in
the amount of $4,000. Azmina expressed appreciation to CPC for
our on-going support and spoke of a new program that is gaining
momentum which involves elementary and high school students giving
back service to their community.
Big
Sisters of the Lower Mainland
Judy Short presented
$4,000 to Shannon Goepel of Big Sisters of the Lower Mainland. Shannon
reported that there are currently 250 “Big Sisters” and 100 more
on the waiting list. She spoke of the new “Study Buddy”
program which has the girls working with retired teachers and tutors.
BC
Special Olympics
 Ron Lloyd presented
Tanya Aspeleiter of BC Special Olympics with two cheques: The
first in the amount of $4,000 and the second for $13,350 generated at
last September’s Charity Golf Tournament. After giving a brief
overview of BCSO and the sports involving athletes with intellectual
disabilities, Tanya reported that in February 2005 the World Winter
Games will be held in Nagano and the Summer Games will be held in BC’s
Comox Valley.
Small
Talk
Penny O’Rourke spoke
about Small Talk, which CPC Greater Vancouver has supported for 20
years. This program works with pre-school children to assist
with speaking disorders. A $4,000 cheque was accepted on behalf of
Small Talk by John Nunn.
Before the evening drew to a close, Malcolm Winsby
introduced Lillian To, CEO of SUCCESS, an organization that was started
31 years ago to serve people in the Chinese Community and assist with
language barriers, etc. This group has evolved to serve a much
larger group, including non-Chinese with a current budget of $17 million
addressing five different areas:
-
Health Care – seniors’ assisted living and
various health services.
-
Employment Services – 7 centres open to all who
need service and has an 80% success rate.
-
Training – complete range of services include
language, vocational, computer, construction trades, nurses aids and
others.
-
General Social Services – new immigrants
(33,000 in BC per year), family services for parenting, counseling,
family life education and child education. Also community
outreach for seniors and youth.
-
Business Development – assists immigrants to
start businesses. Includes linking businesses, trips to China,
entrepreneur training, self-employment skills.
Introducing the SUCCESS organization to CPC Greater
Vancouver was intended as an inspiring example of other successful
enterprises serving the community.
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