Doughboys realize Valour Place goal
There was good news for the Doughboys on Sunday morning, minutes before the fundraising Valour Place march began.
“A gentleman heard CHED’s Bruce Bowie talking on air and called to ask what Valour Place was all about,” said Dennis Erker, the honorary colonel of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment.
“I took him on a tour of our home away from home for the military, RCMP, veterans and first responders in Edmonton for treatment at our worldclass hospital facilities. He was impressed.”
Although he wanted to remain anonymous, he wrote a cheque for $100,000 for the 12-bed home at 11109 111th Ave.
Publicity generated by the Doughboys, Bruce Bowie, his fellow CHED broadcaster J’lyn Nye and I also helped bring a $25,000 cheque from Erker’s friends Dennis and Connie Nolan.
The march began with K-Division RCMP chaplain Bob Harper blessing the walkers and telling them they had a common bond of suffering that unites us all. “We will go through this and find joy and happiness,” he said.
One of the biggest families in the march was that led by grandpa Lionel Blais. He brought his Loyal Eddies son Sgt. Pierre Blais and girlfriend Pauline Falque; daughter Ginette Blais and another daughter Marianne Horne and her three children Chloe, 9, Sara, 5 and Evelyn, 2.
“It’s important to us we help and celebrate the injured left to heal by themselves and sometimes forgotten,” said Pierre Blais.
John Stanton, the Loyal Eddies’ honorary lieutenant-colonel and founder and president of the Running Room, led a march warm-up.
“We have raised about $3 million of the endowment fund we need to make sure the public will never be asked to support Valour Place,” he said.
For the Doughboys, a surprise came at the post-march meal when we reached our goal of $20,000 when Aussie-born Lt. Jason Pascoe announced his ANZAC committee had presented our ladder campaign with a cheque for $6,000.
“We heard you had only raised $16,000 and we wanted to help you out,” he said.
FIT FOR A KING OR QUEEN
Up for grabs at Pinot on the Patio auction Wednesday at the Royal Glenora Club will be a meal on par with any you will find in London, Paris or New York. “Our chef Ryan O’Flynn will consult with you before inviting your party of eight to dine at the Chef’s Table in our new restaurant Share,” says Westin general manager Joumana Ghandour.
O’Flynn, confident he can compete with the best in the world, was the winner of the Canadian Culinary Championships organized by the Gold Medal Plates Dinners to support Canada’s Olympic athletes.
He practised his craft in Europe for 11 years, setting a dainty dish of lamb before the Queen and preparing a salmon dish for U2.
The meal will be auctioned in support of CASA, providers of mental health services to children, adolescents and their families.
Other restaurants offering to help include: Ruth’s Chris, Madison’s Grill, Sorrentino’s, The Hat, the New Asian Village and the Chateau Lacombe’s La Ronde restaurant.
Richard Wong, Chateau Lacombe’s general manger, is also offering dinner and brunch the next day for the best hippie costume.
Be at the biggest hippie party in Edmonton since the sixties or be square.
Volunteer’s bras are to be burned.
Tickets are $75 at www. pinotonthepatio.org or 780400-4538. Also at Sherbrooke Liquor, Bin 104, Riverbend’s Vines and DeVines.
PORTUGAL’S NATIONAL DAY
Shipwrecked off the Cambodian coast in the 16th century, legend has it that Portuguese poet Luis Vaz de Camoes swam ashore with a prized, unfinished manuscript above his head.
“Luis de Camoes is considered Portugal’s greatest poet and his mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Homer and Dante,” Aurelio Fernandez, Portugal’s honorary consul in Edmonton, said last Wednesday on Portugal’s National Day.
“Luis de Camoes’ talent and adventurous life became legendary and inspired our nation. He died June 10, 1580, and June 10 was named our National Day in his honour.”
The poet is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads), the work that myth says he swam ashore with.
Edmontonians of Portuguese descent and friends gathered at the Chateau Lacombe last week to celebrate the country’s big day.
Portuguese culinary students, on an exchange program with NAIT counterparts, prepared classic Portuguese dishes, including my favourite, bacalhau a braz (salt cod, potatoes and eggs).
“Portuguese explorers were among the first to set foot on Canadian soil, with several expeditions believed to have landed on Canada’s eastern coast in the 15th century,” said Fernandez.
“Today, more than 400,000 people of Portuguese descent call Canada their home.”
NOT JUST SKIN DEEP
Just received a photo from Edmonton dermatologist Dr. Barry Lycka, founder of the Canadian Skin Cancer Foundation, who found himself sandwiched in Toronto between two Miss Universe Canada contestants.
“On my right is Wetaskiwin’s Kathlyn Kohut, who was second runner-up,” he reports.
On his left was People’s Choice winner Lisa Nguyen, 27, from Edmonton, whom he sponsored.
A diagnostic medical sonographer and an Edmonton Oilers cheerleader, Nguyen told me the definition of beauty encompasses much more than superficial qualities.
“They are the qualities of leadership, compassion, honesty, drive, intellectuality and more,” she said. “It should be considered more of a conference of females who inspire their communities.