ODD SQUAD’S DRUG-AWARENESS PROGRAM EARNS TOP COP’S KUDOS
PRAISE WHERE DUE: Attending the 20-year-old Odd Squad Production Society’s first open house, Vancouver Chief Constable Adam Palmer praised the independent charity’s membership of serving and retired police officers. “You focus on things that really matter in our society,” he said, citing as “brilliant” a resource program titled Understanding Fentanyl that the squad produced and supplied to all B.C. schools. “You do fantastic work, with more to come, and you have 100 per cent support from the Vancouver Police Department.”
Odd Squad co-founder Sergeant Toby Hinton said volunteer members “work tirelessly on the streets, for nothing. We are very much involved with (drugabuse) prevention, and will stay focused on that.” Meanwhile, “Our educational work with the kids is going on like crazy. The future is bright for us.”
MAKING CHANGERS: Chief Palmer was out and about again at the Pacific Autism Family Network’s $175-ticket luncheon. The evening-gala-like event reportedly raised $719,000 for an organization that Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia founded and that has husband, Sergio Cocchia, as president and board chairman. At the luncheon, Game Changer awards were made to the Presidents Group, the RCMP and the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Association. The network’s integrated Hub facility in Richmond serves autism patients and their families. A video message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked 1,000 luncheon guests for being there “tonight.” Those present included B.C. Chief Justice Robert Bauman, former B.C. finance minister Carole Taylor and Lt.- Gov Janet Austin, who spoke warmly of the Cocchias. Premier John Horgan was expected but detained, not that skipping lunch would harm anyone growing in office.
THE … WINNER: In a medium that usually jams words together, CKNW’s Charles Adler has wrested radio’s longest-pause title from CBC’s As It Happens co-host Jeff Douglas.
ROBINSON REDUX: Once familiar around town, Holly Robinson Peete sat as an “honorary game changer” at the autism luncheon’s table. As the yetunmarried Holly Robinson in 1987 to 1992, she played the role of undercover cop Judy Hoffs in the city-shot television series 21 Jump Street. At the luncheon, she accompanied autistic son R.J. Peete, who will soon be 21 himself. Extolling Vancouver to magazine writer John Lekich in 1987, the multilingual Robinson Peete said: “There are so many naive Americans who don’t even know there’s civilization here.” Not that that perception has changed entirely.
POWER ON: That would be a red dress according to Lisogar-Cocchia, Robinson Peete and Taylor, who were all so-attired at the autism luncheon.
NO-MEAT MEET: Zoe Peled’s limbs, neck and chest are the backdrop for fruit-and-flower tattoos, but the Vancouver Vegan Resource Centre founder says more are unseen. Most evident, though, are the sentiments she showed to produce a holiday party for Animal Justice, a 10-year-old, Ottawa-based nonprofit organization of animaladvocacy lawyers. Executive director Camille Labchuk greeted 150 guests, shared vegan fare and said that four animalsupporting bills are before Parliament now. Guests were intrigued by the quicksilver antics of 14-year-old Kingston Zoom Walters, a.k.a. King Zoom: The Vegan Kid. The subject of a second book by writer-illustratormother Gillian, Walters recently joined American actor and animal-activist James Cromwell to address a Utah gathering and reportedly save 100 turkeys from Christmas tables. Aware of some animal-rights organizations’ combative protests. Walters says: “My mom reminds me that, when we are talking to prevegans, we must always come from a place of compassion and model non-violent communications.” Smart kid.
UP PARRYSCOPE: Downtown’s 105-year-old Sinclair Centre could use a good scrubbing.
TIME WAS: AIDS was still a whispered word in 1990 when Ani Feuermann invited female friends to an awareness lunch at Cafe Veneto. Some of them likely wore bijoux from Feuermann and husband Daniel’s Cartier store. The event caught on. Such early attendees as Jill Lyall, Joan Gusola and Julia Molnar joined current supporters when executive director Lisa Martella fronted the Loving Spoonful feeding agency’s recent World AIDS Day luncheon at the Terminal City Club. Once an inevitable terminal ailment itself, HIV/AIDS has been controlled enough for attending artist Joe Average, 61, to say: “I’ve had it longer than I haven’t had it.”
FAIR ENOUGH: A bilingual article in Toronto-published Fete Chinoise magazine is resonating in Richmond. Its five pages have Jennifer Lau write about Fairchild Group founder and Aberdeen Centre owner Thomas Fung under the headline (and Fairchild motto) Spirit of Enterprise. The $350-million media-andreal estate firm’s name reflects an admonition by Fung ’s father, the Sung Hung Kai Finance firm founder, to treat everyone fairly. According to Lau, Fairchild’s Chinese-language title merely means “New Era.”
FAIRER YET: Mega-tycoon Henry Ford named his Michigan estate Fair Lane and a series of Ford cars Fairlane to commemorate his maternal grandmother’s birthplace in Cork, Ireland. Ford established a new era, too, when his Model T put America on wheels.
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Unlike Harbour Air’s seaplane fleet, Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden discourages twin otters.