Dear Villagers: Christmas Eve seems like a long time ago. Everyone’s contribution was appreciated and recognized. This small investment of time by the volunteers allowed our Village to shine with its generosity. Thank you.

There is a story out there that the new council benchmarks performance. It’s true. I will be asking everyone next year to volunteer again and hope you will agree to participate. Please continue to practice your musical instrument, singing, and solicitation skills with the purpose of surpassing this year’s collection.

Here is a letter of appreciation from The Salvation Army to Lions Bay.  Click here to read!

Photo by Nancy Wombat via flickr

On Sunday, September 25, 2011 a team of volunteers coordinated by Eric Fleury went out to clean Lions Bay Beach and Kelvin Grove Beach. This was sponsored by the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. A record of the items collected went on data cards. These cards are then used to see what types of litter are most prevalent and problematic in our area.

We collected paper bags, plastic bags, balloons, beverage cans, caps, pull tabs, glass bottles, items of clothing, food wrappers, rope, fishing line, lots of cigarette butts, building materials, styrofoam and wire. The most unusual item we found this year was an aluminum foam filled pontoon which was 6 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot in size. We collected about 43 pounds of garbage.

The top 3 litter items removed throughout the coastal cleanups in British Columbia continue to be cigarette/cigarette filters, food wrappers/ containers and plastic bags. The top recyclable items that continue to end up as litter are plastic bottles and beverage cans.

Also, we want to include an update from the Knight family in Brunswick Beach that they are continually picking up stuff from their shorelines and they note that the Alberta Bay Beach section has been fairly clean except for when a big storm hits. They would like to pass on a message for everyone: "whatever you bring to the beach make sure you pack it out with you".

Great job to everyone who pitched in. See you all in September of 2012 for our next annual Shoreline cleanup in Lions Bay.

This summer, the hottest fundraising ticket was the Traini Family Pizza Party, where a hundred tickets raised over $1000.00 for our ESS Emergency Social Services.  Our beloved hosts, Art and Lucy Traini created a gorgeous Italian Villa which beautifully reflects their passion for entertaining family and friends.  With help from their fabulous family, Art and Lucy lovingly baked over 125 gourmet pizzas, using their custom built fire burning  trattoria oven.  This way of baking retains all the smoky savoury flavour and the Pizzas were absolutely delicious.

Made from their traditional family recipe that dates back to the renaissance, with one bite, I was magically transported back to Italy, where Pizza Lovers from all over unite.

Another Great Success!!!

When Harold Gienger invited Project Hands to be the charity of choice in his annual Lions Bay Golf Tournament again we were delighted. To be invited two years in a row is quite an honour and to be once again so generously supported by the village is truly humbling. Thank you so much!

We had a great time this year. We finally got some wonderful weather (the first of the season), were able to have all our 72 golfers tee off at the same time with our 'shot gun start' and we raised a whopping $11,200 for Project HANDS. That's 3/4 of the cost of a full surgical trip. AMAZING!

Zackory Turpin, Vaughan Smith, Maya Peat and Tavish McKay were four of many students at the Gleneagles School who took off the head of hair they had for the Shave for the Brave event. Jasmine Grant and Haley Fleury also donated their pony tails and Maya was able to get three pony tails for wigs for kids!

At another fundraiser, local students Sarah Kemp, Madison George-Berlet, Jayden George-Berlet, Tripp Smith and Zackory Turpin took part in the Child Run on Sunday of the Miracle Weekend. Maya, Zackory, Sarah, Madison, Jayden, Tripp and Gleneagles school raised over $6,000 for the Children’s Hospital Miracle Weekend. They are SuperHeros indeed!

Our hats are off to you all! Thanks so much. Great job Kids!