Adam’s Apples makes a connection
Fundraiser: Program aims to help kids communicate without technology, to honour son’s drug death
APPLES FOR THE TAUGHT: Darcy Hibberd’s worst moment entailed finding 22-year-old son Adam Hryhorchuk dead from a recreational drug’s unknown ingredients. His former West Point Grey Academy headmaster, Stephen Anthony, reportedly recalled Adam being “not the kind of kid you put a plaque about on the wall. He was all about people connecting.” Noting that his death had spurred informal student gatherings, Anthony suggested that an apple bowl might draw in others.
Choosing “between being grief-stricken and actually doing something,” Hibberd launched the Adam’s Apple Foundation (adamsapples.ca), recruited a board and sought now-imminent charitable status for a scheme somewhat akin to elementary schools’ buddy benches.
“Adam wasn’t a sad, troubled youth,” she said. “What he couldn’t get over was that kids weren’t communicating with each other.” So, adopting the Connect Without Technology theme, she envisaged a “kid- driven” program “bringing them to a central point without being self-conscious. It’s not just a bowl of apples, it’s a place. And if Adam was there, he’d say: ‘ This is cool.’”
Schools like Churchill Secondary, with 2,500 students, require $15,000 annually. That’s why the foundation is fundraising to extend 12 Vancouver and Richmond school locations to 50 in 2016. A link with the HEROS hockey- outreach organization should fund a national program. Addressing the core issue, Hibberd said: “Adam thought drugs were safe. But he made a bad choice.”
MOTHER’S DOIN’: Tanis Ling’s Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie followed Cameron Watt’s $ 10- million Keefer Building and bar in 2010 to put Keefer Street’s 100- block on the trend circuit. Former Mexico City manufacturer Lilian Steenbock and daughter Ava Chavez weighed in recently by opening Juniper restaurant there with a “Cascadia” menu theme. Given the name, gin cocktails prevail, including the oddly named Aston Martini and East Van Bramble. A whisky-based Wing Sang Sour may acknowledge realtor-art collector Bob Rennie’s sonamed building on adjacent Pender Street.
SALLI SALLIED: Also on Pender, Salli Pateman redeveloped New Town bakery into a high- style restaurant that resurrected the locale’s 1920s name: Sai Woo. The titular time lapse should spare it from what happened to Pateman’s Yaletown-pioneering De Niro’s following pressure by Robert De
Niro. Renamed Section (3) for a legal clause the actor invoked, its menus advised diners: “We need a new cosmology. New Gods. New sacraments. Another drink.”
TOASTY TIME: After planning an August store opening, French- Italian luxury chain Moncler finally did so this week, thus missing some market for its winterwear and accessories. At a reception benefiting Arts Umbrella, manager Delia Tam modelled a $350 toque with mink pompon and Moncler’s best-selling Badymat quilted jacket, $1,205. Not to wear on her 2013 Ducati Monster motorcycle, though, or even the Harley Davidson Sportster she may acquire next.
MAKING WAVES: After realizing zillions from False Creek, Concord Pacific poured a million back in this year. That was for a dragon-boat paddling centre’s six docks and storage facilities. The year-round complex will benefit the annual dragon boating festival that CP sponsors. Those attending the development firm’s recent seasonal reception enthused over a 218-unit Calgary project of $800,000 to $13-million condos that president-CEO Terry Hui said should be “the most high-end building the city has ever seen.”
Guests included 19-year-old twins Aidan and Shamus Menard, who competed in Welland, Ont.’s, dragon-boat world nations championships this year. The Langara College kinesiology students hope to be in Guangzhou for the biennial tourney’s 2017 running. Meanwhile, they coach the Eric Hamber squad, which is the Dragon Zone’s designated under- 18 program. They’ve also trained 10 members of that age group’s national team.
REEL AFTER REEL: Another week, another film festival. Whistler’s ever-growing 15th running dominated recently. Even the Dec. 4-7 second annual Turkish festival showed 29 titles. One week earlier Jessie Lehail and Mannu Sandhu mounted the fifth annual South Asian Film Festival with 20 screenings and nine awards. Among them, Kashmirborn, Australia-raised, city resident Vic Sarin was cited for excellence in filmmaking.
ON RECORD: Artists like Attila Richard Lukacs built their reputations in Berlin, then returned here. Deep Cove-raised Jeremy Shaw stayed there. This week, Sarah Macaulay’s east- of- Main gallery and the adjacent Vinyl Factory Group released 10 signed editions on 12-inch vinyl of the soundtrack to Shaw’s film Variation FQ. A returnee herself, Macaulay modelled for Vogue and other European fashion mags before getting into the art-gallery game.
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Some may recall “trump” being a childhood word for “fart.”