COURAGE TO COME BACK AWARDS RAISE $3 MILLION
ALL THE WAY: For its 20th annual running, Coast Mental Health’s Courage to Come Back Awards banquet dramatically moved forward. The Vancouver Convention Centre event drew 1,800 attendees compared to 1,500 in 2017, and reportedly almost doubled revenue to $3 million. Thirteen-year chair Lorne Segal praised awardees Ingrid Bates, Josh Dahling, Alisa Gil Silvestre, Jim Ryan and Suzanne Venuta’s “sheer determination to persevere in the face of all that life has placed before them.” Vancouver Police Band pipers Tim Fanning and David Glover reflected those sentiments by playing Atholl Highlanders. The tune honoured courageous clans that suffered greatly for supporting Charles Edward Stuart’s (Bonnie Prince Charlie) 1745 bid to upset the British monarchy. Back at the gala, former military and airline pilot Jim Ryan sounded gung-ho for someone rendered quadriplegic by a Maui surfing accident. “I get invited to parties for my witty repartee,” he said after making several cheery jests. Then, glancing at his immobile body and limbs, “’Cause I can’t do anything else.” Except show dauntless courage, that is.
BULL’S-EYE: The Vancouver Art Gallery’s annual art auction began with a bang when auctioneer Hank Bull got $24,000 for Douglas Coupland’s painting of a target that had been estimated at $10,000. Bidders then lowered their sights so that several of the 40 donated works sold around or under estimate or were withdrawn. VAG darling Jeff Wall’s contribution went for $55,000 over its $145,000 estimate, and fellow photo-artist Ian Wallace’s Riders of the Parthenon Frieze I and II ended $10,000 under at $140,000. After bids totalled $1.1 million and change, attendees targeted Mission Hill Family Estate wines and Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel executive chef Nathan Brown’s filet-mignon-centred banquet.
NET GAIN: Marsh Canada president-CEO Sarah Robson and senior VP Anna Feglerska hosted a late-afternoon session titled The Power of Women: How to Lead in The Face of Adversity. National soccer team players and bronze-medal Olympians Karina LeBlanc, Diana Matheson, Christine Sinclair and Rhian Wilkinson addressed attendees regarding empowerment, resilience, leadership and synergy. Having run deeply into what soccer referees would call stoppage time, they ended with a six-item questionnaire by goalie LeBlanc that included the intriguing: “What does getting comfortable with being uncomfortable look like to you?”
PARRYNOIA: After banning straws, what will certain politicians have left to grasp at?
UNDER WEIGH: Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s opening day can entail the commodore standing in wind and driving rain while the club’s sailing and powered fleets slowly pass to salute him or her. Not this year, though. Aboard his Hunter 44, Le Soleil, Alan Stovell enjoyed blue-sky sunshine and a perfect breeze on English Bay, followed by splicing the main brace (drinks) at the Point Grey clubhouse. With boating season now begun, skippers have two important duties. One is to read every word of Ron Holland’s superbly illustrated All The Oceans. Vancouver resident Holland has competed in and often won more open-ocean sailing races than many have heard of. Among the ever-larger racing and cruising yachts he’s designed, single-masted M5 is too tall to pass beneath the Lions Gate Bridge. Skippers’ second duty is to haul their bumpers aboard when casting off rather than have them dangle like huge boogers to ruin their boats’ appearance.
MEN ASHORE: Retired RCMP officers Laurier Cadieux and Bob Underwood made their 27th appearance at RVYC’s opening day. The titanic two were long familiar as the force’s ceremonial officers, although not in the Musical Ride.
BOTTOMS UP: B.C. Hospitality Foundation chair Christine Coletta saw 37 Argentine wine producers — from Alamos to Familia Zuccardi — serve their products when the Dish ‘n’ Dazzle tasting helped support distressed hospitality workers. “¡Esta es tu casa!” (make yourself at home), Wines of Argentina’s Alberto Arizu said as attendees sampled fare from 15 city restaurants and six bars. Coletta and husband Steve Lornie, who are principals of 45,000-cases-a-year Okanagan Crush Pad winery, recently acquired the 20.2-hectare Secrest Mountain Vineyard. That Oliver facility features 12.1 hectares of Gamay, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc, Gris and Noir vines. The Okanagan’s current price “for planted vineyard land is $150,000 to $200,000 per acre,” Coletta said, meaning $370,000 to $495,000 an acre.
FINDERS KEEPERS: IanWallace’s diptych at the Vancouver Art Gallery auction showed marble sculptures the 7th Earl of Elgin removed from Greece’s Parthenon temple after 1801 and sold to the British government in 1816. Most now reside in the British Museum. A 1980 visit to Broomhall, the Elgin family’s Scottish home, revealed several remaining chunks. Over Famous Grouse whisky, the present earl and Bruce clan head recalled being a boy when King George VI spotted the ancient masonry and stuttered words suitable for The King ’s Speech movie. “W-w-ell, Elgin,” he reportedly said. “S-s-till got s-s-o-me of the s-s-wag,” I see.”
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: How happy we’ll be when movie, music, sports and other stars are named by proportional representation rather than archaic public acclaim.