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Our gratitude to the Comox Valley Lions Club for their recent donation to YANA and for their contribution to the New Years Sock Hop.
Many thanks to Boston Pizza who donated to YANA through their giving program. Very much appreciated and needed!
Thank you to the City of Courtenay for awarding YANA a grant-in-aid which we will direct toward improvements at our Vancouver apartments.
It’s a wrap, bidding closed
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Thank you to everyone who participated in our online auction! Bidding closed February 20. You will have received an email if you were a winning bidder. Purchased items can be picked up on or after February 27th at the YANA office. Office hours are Tuesday and Thursday 10am – 2pm. #102-2456 Rosewall Crescent, Courtenay (250) 871-0343.
YANA Big Love auction now underway
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Running until Feb. 20 at 9 p.m., YANA presents their first Big Love On-Line Auction with all proceeds benefitting YANA Comox Valley.
For over three decades, YANA has been hosting an annual dinner and auction to raise funds for local families who need to travel outside the community for the medical care of a child under 19 or a pregnant mother.
“The Big Love Benefit Dinner and Auction is our biggest annual fundraiser,” says YANA president Kelly Rusk.
“It remains a wonderful evening filled with generosity from our sponsors, donors and guests. However, we have always been aware that we are limited by the size of the venue and nature of the event.”
Over the past years, YANA has seen growing need in the Comox Valley related to medical travel which has resulted in significantly higher program costs. This has required the local charity to think creatively and to expand its fundraising.
“Bringing a piece of our biggest fundraiser online and opening it up to the wider community is something we’ve always wanted to do,” said Marcie Dumais, YANA executive director. “The business community and individual donors contribute greatly to auction, and we want to maximize their donations to our cause and increase the benefit their gifts bring to families.”
Links to the YANA Big Love On-Line Auction can be found here.
“Now everybody can find cool stuff, see the community’s generosity, and be part of the Big Love,” adds Dumais.
“We hope everyone will check it out,” said Rusk. “Remember to bid high and bid often for Comox Valley families.”
Online Auction Bidding Starts February 7
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From February 7 (9am) to February 20 (9pm), YANA will be offering a new opportunity for the whole community to participate in Big Love through an online auction. Now everyone can see our community’s generosity, find cool stuff and be part of the BIG LOVE needed to support local families. Register now as a bidder so you are ready on February 7th!
A Brew Fit For Love
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This love potion is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Brad Harris, a full-time family physician by day and self-taught brewer by night (and owner of the Royston Nano Brewery), is undertaking his second brew-based fundraiser in partnership with Gladstone Brewing Company, this time producing the Love Potion NEVI (North East Vancouver Island) IPA.
Brad Harris (middle) stands with members of Gladstone Brewing Company and Beach Fire Brewing and Nosh House from Campbell River. Dennyse Harris photo
“It’s a juicy, sweet, hoppy – but not bitter – easy drinking beer,” explains Harris, shortly after he finished brewing the beer at the Courtenay brewery.
(Keeping with the love theme, musician Richard Spencer officially ‘blessed’ the yeast with love songs in order to make it happy as possible.)
The beer will be canned on Feb. 13, with 1,400 cans being individually hand-labelled by volunteers the morning of Feb. 14 – just in time for Valentine’s Day – for a release party that evening at Gladstone.
The canned beer will be sold at Cascadia Liquor Stores across Vancouver Island, as well as at the brewery. All proceeds will be split between YANA Comox Valley (You Are Not Alone) and the BC Children’s Hospital Oncology.
Nearly two years ago, Harris began his partnership with Gladstone Brewery, and created the Royston IPA. He hosted an It’s Not Just Beer, It’s Love event, with proceeds donated to YANA and BCCH Oncology.
The two organizations have close ties to Harris and his wife Dennyse.
In November 2012, their daughter Linden, then three-and-a-half years old, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, one of only 35 children in the province to get diagnosed with leukemia each year.
Following two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy and treatment at BC Children’s Hospital, Linden is now healthy.
While in Vancouver, Harris and his family depended on support from the Comox Valley – and particularly that of YANA, which provides accommodations and funding for local families who need to travel outside of the area for treatment for a child under 19 years of age.
RELATED: Doctor brewing up unique YANA fundraiser
“This is a perfect example of YANA and how the community comes together,” says Marcie Dumais, executive director of the organization. “The passion of Brad and Dennyse is such a good example of community support.”
Dumais notes events such as the Love Potion release is “so great because it’s so needed. There is an expanded need (of services from YANA) which leads to expanded program costs.”
Glasses, growler fills and cans will be available at the brewery beginning Feb. 14 in addition to Cascadia stores.
The release party runs from 4 to 10 p.m.
For more information, visit the Love Potion NEVI IPA Facebook event page or RoystonNanoBrewery.com.
Online ticket store
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Looking for our online ticket store for Big Love Benefit? It’s here:
https://yana.tickit.ca/ SOLD OUT
Please contact YANA if you are interested in the wait list.