Thank You to the 2026 YANA Riders and Supporters!
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The 2026 YANA Ride was a celebration from start to finish! This year brought a new way to experience the Ride with the YANA Ride Passport. By collecting stamps at checkpoints and enjoying special ride-day exclusives, our community made the 2026 YANA Ride one to remember!
Then came Party in the Park, where sunny skies, all-day live music, and an afternoon filled with fun gave everyone the perfect place to come together and celebrate. Thanks to the generosity of our riders, donors, sponsors, volunteers, and supporters, the 2026 YANA Ride raised an incredible $125,000 to help provide travel and accommodation support to families travelling for medical care for a child or pregnancy.
From the first passport stamp to Party in the Park, the 2026 YANA Ride gave us so many moments to remember. We’re so proud of what this community accomplished together. Here’s to the memories and an amazing Ride!
The 2026 YANA Ride: Your Passport to Adventure
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The YANA Ride is back for 2026, bringing together riders of all ages, abilities, and disciplines in one incredible community-wide event supporting local families.
Last year, YANA supported 300 children and pregnant mothers with nearly 600 medical trips. Every rider, fundraiser, volunteer, sponsor, and supporter helps ensure that no Comox Valley family faces a child’s medical journey alone.
Participating is as easy as 1-2-3!
1. REGISTER & RALLY
Round up your friends, family, coworkers, classmates, neighbours, or riding crew and register as a team!
Fundraising is more fun together, and every dollar raised helps support local families when they need it most. Prefer to ride solo? No problem. Individual riders are always welcome too.
Register by July 1 and you’ll be automatically entered to win a $500 Canadian Tire gift card in our Early Bird Draw.
2. RIDE & RAISE
Join the YANA Ride community on Sunday, August 16 and turn your ride into support for local families by collecting pledges along the way.
Need more flexibility? You can also ride any time between August 1 and August 15.
New for 2026, riders can explore the Comox Valley through a network of YANA Ride Hubs and Passport Checkpoints. Ride to participating locations, collect stamps in your YANA Ride Passport, discover new places, connect with fellow riders, and enjoy special experiences offered by our community partners.
Choose your own route, set your own pace, and create an adventure that’s uniquely yours. Whether you’re aiming to collect every Passport stamp or simply enjoy a ride with family and friends, every pedal pushed helps support local YANA families.
3. REUNITE AT PARTY IN THE PARK
On Sunday, August 16, riders, families, friends, sponsors, volunteers, and supporters will come together at Comox Marina Park for an afternoon of celebration, connection, and community spirit.
Party in the Park is free to attend and open to everyone.
Highlights include:
- Finish line and Congratulation Stations
- Sponsor-donated prizes for every fundraising rider and the official 2026 YANA Ride t-shirt for the top 200 fundraisers
- Beer garden
- All-day live music and entertainment lineup
- Activities for kids, and kids at heart
- 50/50 raffle, Golf Ball Drop, raffles, giveaways and draws
- Silent Auction loaded with bike gear and accessories
- Your favourite Marina Park food trucks and seaside snacks
- Plenty of surprises still to come!
Whether you’ve spent two weeks riding, fundraising, collecting Passport stamps, volunteering, cheering from the sidelines, or simply supporting the cause, Party in the Park is where the YANA Ride community comes together.
Ready to Join the Ride?
Register today, rally your team, start planning your adventure, and help ensure local families receive the support they need when medical care takes them away from home.
Staying Close When It Mattered Most: The McIntosh Family’s Journey with YANA
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Originally published by the Comox Valley Record on Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Every family’s journey to welcoming a child has its own story. For Cameron and Melissa McIntosh, theirs took an unexpected turn at the 20-week ultrasound when they learned their son, Caelan, would need specialized medical care. Before he was even born, the family was travelling to Victoria for additional screenings and ultrasounds. When doctors determined Caelan would need to be delivered at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, during an already overwhelming time, YANA stepped in to take one major worry off their shoulders by arranging accommodations close to the hospital in both Victoria and Vancouver.
At just one day old, Caelan underwent surgery at BC Children’s Hospital, and Melissa and Cameron were able to focus on being by his side without the added worry of accommodation planning and expenses.
“It’s very nice just to have YANA help us out with accommodations, and everything was set up for us, so we only had to go down and worry about him [Caelan]. It takes a lot of the stress off of the planning,” shared Cameron and Melissa.
Before YANA became part of their own journey, the McIntosh family was already familiar with the organization’s impact in the Comox Valley. They understood the importance of keeping families close together during times when medical care requires travel away from home. After experiencing that support firsthand, their appreciation for YANA grew even stronger, inspiring them to become more involved.
Melissa, in particular, has continued to give back as a dedicated YANA volunteer, lending her time and helping wherever she is needed, with Caelan sometimes joining her. Cameron has always had a passion for mountain biking; he and Melissa now get to share that love of cycling with Caelan. Their first YANA Ride was during Melissa’s pregnancy with him, and now Caelan is riding alongside them, making this year’s Ride a meaningful full-circle moment for their family.
Now in their fifth YANA Ride as a fundraising team, the McIntosh family is giving back to help ensure other families receive the same support they did. This year, they’re working toward their fundraising goal of $1,000, riding to visit several Passport Checkpoints along their route, and volunteering at Party in the Park to celebrate with the YANA community.
For one member of the team, Ride Day can’t come soon enough. Caelan is especially excited to visit the Family Fun Zone and take on the Little Wheelers Track, where he’s looking forward to showing off his biking skills.
Every dollar raised through the YANA Ride helps ensure Comox Valley families travelling for medical care can stay together without the added burden of accommodation costs. It’s the support that allows parents to focus on their child during some of life’s most difficult moments.
To support Cameron and Melissa’s fundraising efforts, register for the 2026 YANA Ride, or learn more about the community celebration at Party in the Park on Sunday, August 16, visit www.yanacomoxvalley.com.
Valley Vonka is Back for Another Sweet Spring Fundraiser
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For up-to-date information on Valley Vonka chocolate bar availability, please contact the Comox Valley Record or Hot Chocolates.
Originally published by the Comox Valley Record, April 1st, 2026
The Comox Valley Record is back again with the sweetest contest of 2026.
Presented by The Record, Hot Chocolates and Sure Copy Courtenay, this year’s Valley Vonka contest is sponsored by Peninsula Co-op, Quality Foods, Canadian Tire, Pacific Mist Sapa and Hydropath, Old House Hotel, Locals Restaurant, the Kingfisher Oceanside Resort and Ohspa.
The idea is simple: starting on April 1, there will be 3,000 chocolate bars available for sale at participating locations across the Valley. Five of those bars will have winning tickets, entitling the winner to one of five amazing prizes from our sponsors. The bars, made by the Valley’s own Hot Chocolates, are a prize in and of themselves, but there might be something extra special inside.
With prizes worth up to $1,000 up for grabs, there really isn’t a reason to not participate. Prizes are:
– The Old House and Spa, Local Restaurant: Dinner and a family spa day (value $1,000)
– The Kingfisher Oceanside Resort and Spa: Healing escape in the healing caves with four people (value $780)
– Shopping Spree at Canadian Tire (worth $1,000)
– Fill the Fridge: A Quality Foods gift card (worth $1,000)
When and if you find a golden ticket, don’t wait! Bring it down to the Comox Valley Record office (407D Fifth Street, Courtenay) to claim your prize.
All proceeds from the contest go directly to Y.A.N.A. which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.
YANA’s mandate is to provide financial support families who need to travel outside of the Comox Valley, even if it’s to Campbell River, Nanaimo or Victoria to access medical care for children under 19 or pregnant mothers. The main focus though offering fully-furnished accommodation for those travelling for medical reasons to Vancouver.
Over the years, YANA has helped well over 2,000 children and families.
“We have super-solid data from the past 10 years and it was at 2,000 children helped with 4500 medical trips and it was $2.7million in support that’s been given in the past 10 years” said Executive Director Kelly Barnie.
”In one year it was about $379,000 in support and we were 586 trips last year” she adds.
She says the group went through a transition year in the 90’s where the non-profit went from a fully volunteer organization to one where the first part-time staff member was hired to run the operation. Today there are two part-time and two full-time employees along with a volunteer core of 70-100 people.
Many of those volunteers have direct connections to youth and families who were assisted by the charity.
“Most people, whether it’s one degree of separation or a few, most people in town 40 years know someone who’s been helped” she says.
While there are currently other similar organizations such as Jeneece Place in Victoria or Ronald McDonald houses worldwide, Barnie believes YANA’s concept was the first in British Columbia.
”There are some things that are similar to YANA but that is my understanding, the model of supporting funding and accommodation is the first” she says.
Barnie says the Comox Valley group is often called upon from other communities to get information on, including on how the group handles its finances.
”Keeping costs low, making good choices investing wisely and working hard to fundraise. We’re 97 per cent self-funded, we’re not reliant on grants that can either come or go” she says.
Big Love 2026: Forty Years of Community, $209,000 Raised for YANA Families
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For forty years, this community has done something extraordinary.
When a Comox Valley family hears the words, “You need to leave home to get the medical care your child needs,” this community answers with one word: yes.
Yes, we will help you get there.
Yes, we will make sure you have a place to stay.
Yes, we will make sure cost is not the thing that keeps you up at night.
That spirit was on full display at this year’s Big Love Benefit, where our community came together and raised a remarkable $209,000 for YANA families.
In YANA’s 40th anniversary year, that support carries special meaning.
For four decades, this organization has been powered by the quiet commitment of people who believe deeply in standing beside families when they need it most. Behind every YANA trip is a network of supporters who continue to show up with compassion, generosity, and care.
Big Love is a celebration of that spirit.
It’s volunteers who give their time, sponsors who invest in this work, bidders who raise their hands, and supporters who believe deeply that no family should face a child’s medical journey alone.
This year’s event included a joyful nod to 1986, the year YANA began. Big hair, bright neon, cassette tapes, and a whole lot of laughter filled the room as we celebrated forty years of YANA and the people who have made it possible.
To everyone who attended, volunteered, donated, sponsored, bid, and believed in YANA this year, please know how deeply grateful we are. Your kindness ensures that when a Comox Valley family needs to leave home for care, the care of home travels with them.
We dedicate the love, support, and celebration of Big Love 2026 to the memory of Jim Williams, whose quiet strength helped carry YANA, especially in its earliest days.
Sandra Williams was our founder, and her name is one YANA supporters everywhere know well. Like so many things in life, her work was made possible by someone who stood steadily beside her.
In a year where we celebrated forty years of community showing up for one another, it feels especially fitting to honour the behind-the-scenes dedication that helps something like YANA take root and grow.
Our deepest gratitude to Jim and to the entire community that continues to carry this work forward.
With Big Love,
The YANA Team 💖
