S.U.C.C.E.S.S. gala raises $481,000 for group’s immigrant programs
Auction items included photo of fighting eagle by George Ching Yuen Lo
I N A NAME: The United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society, a.k.a. S.U.C.C.E.S.S., reported raising $481,280 at its recent gala banquet in the Bayshore hotel. Doug Chiu, Jonathan Lai, Grant Lin and Linda Wong chaired, Hong Kong singer Bianca Wu entertained, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. co-founder
Maggie Ip was honoured, and Premier Christy Clark topped a squad of politicians that included Richmond mayor Malcolm Bro
die and wife Christine. Former city mayor Gordon Campbell often attended wearing the event’s only Chinese-style silk jacket. Not so Gregor Robertson. Possibly stuck in traffic and with no election pending, he sent deputy mayor Andrea Reimer.
Auction items included a photograph of fighting eagles by
George Ching Yuen Lo who, if his dental skills are comparable, must have very happy patients.
TOOT FEET: Ingledew’s president Bill Ingledew and Jim Pattison Group founderchairman Jim Pattison literally blew their own horns at Hastings-and-Hornby recently. The former’s shoe-retailing firm celebrated its 100th anniversary by opening a new flagship store there. Both trumpeters graduated from Kitsilano Boys Band, whose leader, Arthur Delamont, kick-started many members’ successful careers, Ingledew said. As for kicky, Ingledew and Pattison’s high notes were complemented by a metre-high ice-sculpted pump with a towering heel that stood beside the tootling duettists.
BROLLY BASHING: It wasn’t the first time downtown Hastings Streeters had fought with rolled umbrellas. The difference was that Sylvie LaRiviere and Kimberleigh Roseblade normally use swords. As student and teacher at Devon Boorman’s Academie Duello, which calls itself the world’s largest Western swordplay school, they participated in the threeday Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium’s wrapup clashfest and feast.
HOT STUFF: Ovens, ranges, dishwashers and suchlike backdropped the Kinesis Dance Somatheatro company’s eighth-annual fundraiser in Miele’s kitchen-equipment showroom. Founder-choreographer Paras
Terezakis staged a brief dance sequence, but the main feature was city bartenders and chefs making good use of the locale’s facilities. The troupe itself will perform Terezakis’s U>Waltz at the Shadbolt Centre April 22-25.
CASHMERE CASH-IN: The words “cashmere” and “technical” once had as little in common as “yoga” and “profit.” But Lululemon founder Chip
Wilson became a billionaire by linking the latter pair. Now he, wife Shannon and son J.J. believe a tech-enhanced cashmere called Qemir will help their new Kit and Ace fashion enterprise reach a target of 60 global stores by next year and a profit by 2018. All three missed the launch of “athleisure” garments in K& A’s Gastown store recently. But the invitation reflected Chip’s past fiscal prowess with: “Find out what it means to live in luxury.”
BON APPÉTIT: Super-slender fashion models aren’t the only concern for Looking Glass Foundation for Eating Disorders staff and donors. Its Light The Way gala recently reportedly raised $430,000 to support other young women and some men with residential, day-support, summer-camp and scholarship programs. After choristers sang James Taylor’s Shed A Little Light, gala-goers dined on salad, roast chicken, whipped potatoes, various desserts and caramels. Some doubtless prayed for a time when those they care for may do the same, keep it down and return next day for the same again. KEY OF SEE: Claire Mortifee’s mother Nancy and aunt Jane watched her sing the late Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough in the Commodore Ballroom recently. The Shooting Stars Foundation’s Motown Meltdown concert benefited city-based Seva Canada — chair Nancy Mortifee — that funds eyesight-restoration procedures in developing-world nations. Claire and fellow singer Jane appeared halfway down the concert’s alphabetical list of 26 volunteer artists running from
Dalannah Gail Bowen and Jim Byrnes to David Wills
and Garfield Wilson. WRIGHT NOT WRONG: “Louie Louie, oh no / Sayin’ we gotta go.” Those lyrics from the Kingsmen’s 1963 hit suited Vancouver Opera better than Puccini arias in 1998. That’s when
Martha-Lou ( Louie) Henley and other generous supporters ended upper-management shenanigans by withdrawing their financial support. A trap door was sprung, Opera Carolina’s
James Wright became general director, and the soothed Henley later donated $1 million — twice. Although scheduled to take a bow this year, Wright will stay until 2016 with no contrary murmuring.
SALUTE! Three-dozen tasting tables were loaded with Italian bacon, cheese, ham, mortadella, prosciutto, salami, zampone and suchlike. Twenty more carried wines from Italy’s 20 regions. Staged by the Italian Trade Commission, the How Italy Does Italian event in the Bayshore hotel featured wares from a nation that claims Europe’s largest number of origin-and-location-designated food producers as well as many designation- and origin-controlled winemakers.
Among appraisers, Follow Me Foodie reporter Mijune Pak favoured Fumagalli’s truffled ham and Gigi il Salumificio’s soft-and-crunchy bacon. Authentic Wine & Spirits Merchants’ principal Darryl Weinbren found Castello Ducale’s Pallagrello Nero “elegant, well-balanced, good with food, and anything organic will do well in B.C.”
Weinbren was relieved to be in B.C. Days earlier, he flown to Duesseldorf by Germanwings Airbus for the huge ProWein trade fair. DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Some seemingly still believe that no means yes.