Big congratulations to our team from Courtenay who conquered the Snow to Surf challenge this year. The course involved Alpine Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, Cross Country Running, Downhill Running, Mountain Biking, Kayaking, Road Biking and Canoeing. Our team placed 105 overall and improved their time from 2011 by just under 15 minutes.
When a young boy went missing in the Kootenays last year, BC Hydro lineman Brian Gueldenstern wondered why there wasn’t a better way to get that information out to more people, including his co-workers.
So he made a pitch to get Amber Alerts sent to all Hydro workers in the field.
Now the B.C. government has picked up his idea and is expanding the specialized instant-alert program to include all 30,000 civil servants.
Gueldenstern, who works in Nanaimo, attended a Vancouver news conference with Premier Christy Clark Friday to announce the implementation of the initiative, which will see all provincial workers receive Amber Alerts on their computers and mobile devices on a 24-hour basis.
Clark credited Gueldenstern with getting the Amber Alerts out to Hydro workers and beyond.
“It started with one person and now it is going to have a potentially life-saving impact all across the province,” she said. “One person really can make a very big difference in another person’s life.”
Since the Amber Alert warning system was implemented in B.C. in 2004, it has been used just 12 times to provide instant information to the public about the disappearance of 15 kids.
“Every one of those 15 children returned home safely. That’s the value of having eyes in the community,” Clark said.
“There is nothing to compare with the terror a parent feels when their child goes missing.”
Clark credited Child Find BC president Crystal Dunahee with bringing Amber Alert to the province eight years ago.
Dunahee’s four-year-old son Michael vanished from a Victoria playground in 1991 and has never been found.
“I remember back when Michael first disappeared, the way we had to get information out was mass reproduction of posters and handing them out individually,” Dunahee said. “Technology has come a long way.”
Clark said BC Hydro, ICBC and BC Transit, as well as London Drugs are already on board with sending out alerts to their employees when they’re issued. She challenged other Crown corporations and private companies to join the campaign.
RCMP Chief Superintendent Wayne Rideout said Amber Alert has been an effective tool for law enforcement agencies.
“By broadening the reach of Amber Alert, police will be closer to our goal of ensuring that every single person in British Columbia is immediately notified when a child has been abducted,” he said. “The importance of timely dissemination of information to the broadest audience possible is critical in these investigations.”
London Drugs presented a donation of $2362.70 to The Salvation Army, British Columbia division. The total was collected from wireless pin pads that were given to The Salvation Army during their Christmas Kettle Campaign in 2011. Kettle workers stationed at two of London Drugs largest locations, Broadway and Cambie in Vancouver and Lonsdale Ave in North Vancouver gave passerby and customers the ability to make a donation to the Salvation Army using their debit and credit cards.
The Salvation Army provides much needed food, clothing and social support to thousands of individuals and families throughout the year. In addition to the pin pads, London Drugs accepted donations at the cashiers at all 34 of its Lower Mainland stores, with donations going directly to those citizens living in the communities where the donations were made.
In attendance at the cheque presentation were Major Brian Venables, divisional secretary for public relations and development Salvation Army, and Dave Woogman, London Drugs Cambie and Broadway store manager.
This gift was made possible by the support and generosity of our customers through the purchases of the ‘I Love Vancouver’ t-shirts. Thanks to you, Turbo and London are now here as the newest members of the VPD Mounted Unit.
2012 is the fifth year for Pink Shirt Day (PinkShirtDay.ca), which will be held on Wednesday, February 29. This is London Drugs’ fourth year of participation, and all locations will be selling pink shirts and buttons to raise awareness and funds for anti-bullying programs supported by the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast B.C. as well as the CKNW Orphan’s Fund.
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| Shirts are available at all London Drugs locations |
Some facts about bullying:
London Drugs Toy Tour brightens up lives of families experiencing tough times
When the school bells ring today signalling the start of Christmas holidays, it will be a joyful time for many kids.
Not so for students who are going home to places where there is not enough food to stretch through the holidays, let alone money for extras like a visit from Santa.
This week, London Drugs stepped in to play Santa for some of these kids, loading up a little convoy of vans and trucks to drop off toys for children who otherwise would have little cheer at Christmas.
“That week before Christmas is a tough one,” Margaret Jorgensen, principal at Strathcona elementary in Vancouver, told representatives from London Drugs who arrived at her school with huge bags of toys.
It was a refrain echoed by educators from Surrey to North Vancouver as the convoy stopped by schools that have shared their stories and their students’ needs with The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Adopt-a-School program.
“In the past, teachers have just noticed need in their classes and referred families,” said Carol Davison, principal at Surrey’s Forsyth Road elementary school. “This year we decided to send out a form because we were afraid we were missing people who could use the help and we were just overwhelmed by the stories.
“We’ve got a single mother with seven children; she’s a refugee and she’s unemployed. How is she going to provide Christmas for them?
“There are people who do seasonal work, dads who have been laid off … people who are on disability, grandparents raising grandchildren. We don’t recognize sometimes that they really could use the help, so it’s great that the community is stepping up and being able to provide all this.”
While the Christmas season invariably stirs people to give, this year some of the educators on the London Drugs toy tour noted donations are down.
“It is getting tougher all over,” said Davison.
And the needs are year-round. Some of them are not so obvious – like the children who slip off their shoes to sit down and listen to stories at carpet time and it is only then their teachers realize they have walked to school in freezing temperatures with no socks.
Mary Higgins, merchandise manager at London Drugs, has been dropping off toys for needy children every year for the past 25 years. But this week marked the first time she has come face to face with the children she is helping and heard their stories that go far beyond simply needing a present for Christmas.
“This has been eye-opening for me,” said Higgins. “We have to protect these children.
“These children are the generations of our future.”
One of the stops was at CABE, Coquitlam Alternative Basic Education, where volunteers, including well-known Vancouver blogger Miss 604 – Rebecca Bollwitt – handed out toys for babies of teen moms in the program that is geared to vulnerable students.
“We appreciate everything that we get,” Vanessa Ellingson, mom and sole breadwinner for threeyear-old Pablo and seven-month-old Marley said.”Everything that we get is something that we don’t have to buy.
“It puts more food on our tables.”
The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund has pledged to match dollar-for-dollar donations made to Adopt-a-School, up to $100,000.
SIX WAYS TO DONATE
1. MAIL: Complete the donation form and mail it to: The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Society, Suite 1 – 200 Granville St., Vancouver, B.C. V6C 3N3. We accept Visa, MasterCard or a cheque or money order payable to The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Society.
2. PHONE: To pay by credit card, call 604-605-2426.
3. ONLINE: To donate online using Visa or MasterCard, go to www.vansunkidsfund.ca and click on the donate button.
4. TEXT YOUR DONATION: Text SUNKIDS to 20222 to donate $5. Your donation, which will appear on your cellphone bill, will go to the Children’s Fund Adopt-a-School project.
5. FACEBOOK: For every “Like” on the Children’s Fund Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ vansunkidsfund, Telus is donating $1 to Adopt-a-School. Reader Ken Mellquist has also pledged to match Telus’s contribution. The fund matches every $1, so every “like” sends $4 to help B.C. kids in need.
6. NEW ITEMS: Our Adopt-a-School project not only collects money, it is a conduit so readers can donate goods such as coats, shoes and gloves directly to schools and students who need them most. For information on how to donate, email adoptaschool@vancouversun.com.
‘LIKE’ US ON FACEBOOK AND $4 WILL BE DONATED TO NEEDY B.C. KIDS
We hit 5,000 “likes” on Facebook. com/VanSunKidsFund on Dec. 9, a goal set when Telus offered to donate $1 to Adopt-a-School for every like up to $5,000. The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund board and West Vancouver reader Ken Mellquist each matched Telus’s contribution. When the total hit $20,000, Telus stepped up to offer $1 per like, up to another $5,000. If we hit 10,000 likes by Christmas, the $20,000 raised will jump to $30,000.
“Like” dollars raised as of Thursday 4 p.m.: $23,632
The VPD’s mounted squad took action during the 2011 Stanley Cup riot.
Photograph by: Dan Toulgoet, Vancouver Courier
The Vancouver Police Department will soon add two new horses to its mounted squad and one will be named after… a major retail chain known for its electronic goods?
London Drugs has donated $7,000 to the Vancouver Police Foundation with the understanding the money be distributed to the VPD’s mounted squad.
In honour of the donation, which will also be used to buy a power washer for the squad’s barn at Stanley Park, the VPD decided it will name one of the horses “London.”
But before the public thinks the VPD is embarking on a marketing drive to name its police service animals after corporate donors, Const. Lindsey Houghton, a VPD media relations officer, said that’s not the case.
“There was no expectation of us naming the horse after the company, the president or anything like that,” Houghton told the Courier. “The mounted squad thought the name London was actually a pretty good name for a horse.”
The $7,000 from London Drugs came from a fundraising campaign the retail chain launched after the June 15 Stanley Cup riot to thank police for their efforts that night and support the Vancouver Police Foundation. The campaign involved the sale of “I love Vancouver” T-shirts and donations from the public.
The London Drugs store at Granville and Georgia was ransacked and looted during the riot, causing $650,000 in damage. Employees were forced to hide in a reinforced steel room in the store.
“I will always be grateful that the police were able to save our staff,” said Wynne Powell, the CEO of London Drugs. “They took some time to respond because of the terrible night that they were dealing with. But when they came, they came in force and they got our people out safely.”
Powell said the money was given to the mounted squad after a discussion with the Vancouver Police Foundation on how best to use the money.
“They brought up the horse idea and that was very comfortable with us because the horses were one of the assets that were extremely helpful at protecting people during the riot,” he said.
The VPD recently purchased “London” but Houghton didn’t immediately know the cost. The VPD also purchased London’s brother, who has yet to be given a name. Both horses are undergoing training and expected to be on the job in January.
So what’s Powell think about the VPD naming one of the horses London?
“It’s fantastic,” he said, echoing Houghton’s comments there was no expectation the horse be named after the company. “I’m just delighted they’re doing that. That will be a horse that will remind everybody about their generosity.”
Private donations to the VPD and its foundation are not new.
In the past year, the VPD accepted $30,000 from private citizen Tony Elwood to be used for the department’s diversity and aboriginal policing section.
The Aboriginal Community Center Employment Services Society also donated $20,000 to pay for the wages of three aboriginal people involved in the VPD’s aboriginal cadet program.
The VPD accepted eight tactical vests worth a total of $20,000 from ArmorWorks Canada Limited and the Vancouver Police Foundation raised $72,000 toward the construction of a “Memorial Wall” for fallen officers at the Graveley Street police station
