May 15, 2006

Recent Vancouver Tourism Award winners were Macelinda Damayo of the Four Seasons and Judy Waddell of the Fairmont Waterfront. They were Nominated for their exceptional service.

The Peace Arch Hospital and Community Health Foundation received $3,720 from South Point Canadian Tire. For every goal scored by the Surrey Eagles at home games, the store donated $1. The $1,240 raised was matched by the Canadian Tire Foundation for Families.

The 21st annual Hook & Ladder Pub duck race inNewton’s King Creek raised a record $2,800 forSurrey Memorial Hospital.

Recipients of B.C. Construction Roundtable $1,500 scholarships were Dale Mueller of BCIT (Construction Management) and Kehui Zhang of UBC (Construction Engineering and Management).

B.C. winners of Summit Creative Awards were NOW Communications Group (1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze), Kelowna’s Acro Media (1 b), Burnkit (1 s), Coastlines Creative Group (1 b), Creative Spirit Communications (1 b), Eagle Vision Video of Fort St. John (1 s), Griffiths Gibson & Ramsay Productions (1 b), Ideastream Design (1 s, 2 b), Kimbo Design (1 b), McGuffie Design (1 b), McMillan (1 g, 1 s), Malahat Group International of Victoria(1 s, 2 b), RKW Communications (1 s), Suplot Design (2 g, 1 s, 1 b), and Tekton Creative (1 s).

Vancouver Island performance improvement company Incentive Depot set  up volunteer appreciation and fundraising programs, valued at nearly $150,000, that it will donate to qualifying organizations. Charities with a  national presence and a base of 500 or more volunteers can apply for the Volunteer Appreciation Recognition Program or the Fundraising Store.

Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre was named to Conde Nast’s 2006 HOT List of new properties. Only two Canadian hotels were named, the other from Quebec.

Starbucks donated $1,000 to the Richmond Public Library through its Make Your Mark volunteer program. Starbucks employees volunteered 275 hours on behalf of the library, and the money will purchase children’s books for the Ironwood branch.

Recognized as the Top Employers for Workplace Diversity by The Canadian Immigrant Magazine were RBC Financial Group (Banking/Financial category), the CBC (Government/ NGO), SFU (Education), Safeway (Retail) and channel m Television (Hospitality/Entertainment).

RBC Royal Bank donated $9,700 to the RichmondArt Gallery’s Family Sunday free art program.

Through its community/corporate responsibility program, Three Spheres of Reciprocity, JDQ Systems is helping the Surrey Food Bank Society upgrade its computerized client registration system.

The BC Hydro Employees’ Community Services Fund (HYDRECS) donated $28,71 to The Salvation Army Belkin House. It will support the Food Services  Pre-Employment program which teaches the homeless and those at risk the skills necessary for jobs in the food services industry.

BMO Bank of Montreal raised $14,140.86 for the BC Cancer Foundation through its Fountain of Hope employee campaign.

B.C. winners of International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill Awards of Excellence were Wendy Heshka and Sharon Stevens of Communication Solutions in Kamloops and Bruce Hitchen of Telus Communications (Electronic/ Digital Communication Management category), Bruce Hitchen of Telus Communications (Electronic/Digital Communication — Skills), Meagan Olsen of Coast Capital Savings and Eduarda Hodgins of West Fraser Timber/Jennifer Wah of Forwords Communication (Publications), and Catherine Worrall of Ideastream Design (Publication Design). Awards of Merit were won by Mijanou Serre of the BC Securities Commission (Economic, Social & Environmental Development), Roberta Randall of BC Housing, and Heather Prime of BCAA/Tudor Williams and Ryan Williams of Tudor Williams (Electronic/Digital Communication Management), and Chris Freek of Prospera Credit Union and Insurance Agencies (2 – Publications, Publication Design).

BC Biotech presented its 2006 BC Biotechnology Awards to Dale Gann of UVic’s Vancouver Island Technology Park (Volunteer of the Year), Dr. Martin Gleave of OncoGenex Technologies and the Prostate Centre at VGH (Innovation and Achievement), Richard Glickman of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (Leadership), Ross MacGillivray of UBC’s Centre for Blood Research (Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence), and Neuromed Pharmaceuticals (Life Sciences Company of the Year).

At the recent North American Skal Conference, the Vancouver Skal Club received the Top Club inCanada award for the second consecutive year and was named second overall in North America. The club was recognized for its support of tourism development through its bursaries for top BCIT Tourism students, and secretary/treasurer Ivano Corazza was honoured for his contributions.

C The Vancouver Sun 2006