Browsing “Charity”

In fundraising efforts to send 15 ambassadors to continue the construction of homes in Norzagaray Bulacan, Philippines, the Enspire Foundation‘s Enspring Race takes place in downtown Vancouver on SEP. 18 and if you’re interested in participating, you can still register for the race by tomorrow, FRI/AUG. 27. Full details of the race are HERE.

Co-founder Lorie Corcuera talks about how the Enspire Foundation, the race and the recruitment process this year to send the crew 2010 team:

Q – Tell me about Enspire Foundation?
A – Enspire Foundation’s mission is “to empower, educate and encourage individuals to help themselves and others”. We are about ‘enspiring’ young Canadians locally to give back to their communities here and internationally. Through our Shared Experience Program, we are giving volunteers an opportunity to gain a life changing experience by spending time with families from one of the poorest communities in the Philippines and then to build homes for the same families. Our hope is that they will continue this community work when they return to Vancouver (continued under the cut)

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Have you Tasted the Love yet? There’s still time to enter Vancouver is Awesome’s giveaway to win one of five (it was six but @VIAGiveaways Twittered one away) $50 gift cards to Mr. Mike’s. The Vancouver institution is celebrating their 50th year in the business of tasty burgers and to celebrate the milestone has been donating $1 from every Mikeburger sold to local charities over the past six weeks. You can read more about it (and help them reach their goal of $50,000!) here and here.

In the meantime, you can enter Vancouver is Awesome’s giveaway by leaving your comment here. Contest closes tomorrow!

Hold the bacon. Jules don’t dig on swine.

While we here at V.I.A. are all about harvesting the free blackberries and figs that grow wild around these parts, some of you might have the opposite problem that we do – that you have too much fruit and no way to get rid of it. I recently found out about this super cool organization called The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project that’s dedicated to harvesting and sharing fresh local fruit in Vancouver. They harvest fruit and nuts from trees in Vancouver that would otherwise go to waste and distribute it to community partners including daycares, community kitchens, seniors’ centres, and more. They’ve been around since 1999 and have shared over 25,000 pounds of fruit! Literally TONS!

If you’ve got a tree that bears fruit or nuts you can contact The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project and they’ll come and pick it and get it to folks who need it. Click HERE to learn more about em and HERE to follow them on Twitter.
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Win one of SIX $50 gift certificates to Mr Mike’s!

Mr Mike’s is a West Coast institution – just ask Michael J. Fox (who shared this tasty tidbit with Vancouver is Awesome during his interview back in January). The restaurant’s very first location was opened on Vancouver’s Granville St. in 1960 by two brothers with a dream and a taste for grilled meat. To celebrate this incredible milestone, Mr Mike’s is giving back with Mikeburger Madness – a dollar for every Mikeburger sold between July 18 and August 29th is going towards supporting local charities in their various communities. Their goal is to reach $50,000 – and from what I hear they are getting pretty darned close. Wouldn’t it be awesome to be a part of that meaty madness? Mmmm hmmm.

In addition to giving back to local charities, Mr Mike’s is also giving Vancouver is Awesome readers a chance to win one of six $50 gift certificates.

Which means your odds of winning are good. Really, really, really good.

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Livestock added a wrapup post to their site about the Livecup soccer tournament that we played a couple weekends back. Find out who won and take a look at a bunch of great images shot by Chris Bone HERE!

This Friday July 16th at Fortune Sound Cherchez La Femme presents the Summertime T-Shirt Show hosted by Roxy (Love & Electrik), a benefit featuring local t-shirt designs by: Dope Girl Fresh, El Kartel, Domestic, Stussy-Calen Knauf, Megadestroyer, Dan Climan, Occhio Grosso, Kaput, Cherchez La Femme, Mental Wealth, Vancity, Look Forward to the Past, Jean Okada, Lifetime and Sharks+Hammers with all ticket sales going to support Girls Rock Camp Vancouver. $10 tickets available at Dipt, Stussy, Sharks+Hammers, El Kartel, show starts at 11pm. Followed by a surf inspired DJ set by The Freshest (Rico Uno, Marvel, Kutcorners & Seko) and in the Livestock Room from 12am-2am it’s Easy Now/Def Jam with Cherchez & Skinny Pete. For more info, see the event page HERE.

Last August I co-curated an art show called Smile On Your Brother that was hosted by Livestock on it’s tour across Canada from Vancouver to Calgary to Saskatoon to Toronto to Montreal to Quebec City. It was a charity show where all of the money raised went towards buying underprivileged kids skateboards. Now this might seem strange to some but for a lot of people I know (myself included) as kids and teenagers, skateboarding was one thing that really kept them out of trouble, and the Contributor charity which produced the show knows this just as well as anybody.

The latest Contributor project is called One Way Or Another and I am again co-curating, this time along with Andy Jenkins of Girl Skateboards, Mike Giles of Furni, Justin Cooper of Society 6, Annie Lam of Breadwinner and Sandro Grison of Vancouver’s own Color Magazine. It’s an online project where we did a public/juried call for submissions, then we had some wild cards where we invited established artists to be involved. How it works is that you go to their SITE and find the artist who you like (out of a stacked stable of more than 40), then you pay $150 and that artist creates a one-off skateboard just for you to hang on your wall. The money then goes directly into buying skateboards which will then be distributed to kids all across Canada. Everybody wins. GO NOW.

THE OFFICIAL WORD:
Contributor has teamed up with Society6 and Club Mumble to curate our second art show in support of Contributor. Building on the success of last year’s group show, “One Way Or Another” plays upon the personal nature of a skateboard. Things like how you grip your board, how loose your trucks are, and heck, how you know that the size of your wheels down to the slightest of millimeters will make the hugest difference. In the end, this little wooden toy seems to be made just for you.

Combining an open call at Society6 and a group of specially invited guests (curated by Andy Jenkins, Bob Kronbauer, Sandro Grison, Justin Cooper, Mike Giles & Annie Lam), we have selected over 40 artists/collectives from around the world to create original artwork on full-size blank maple decks. These specially made boards will be sold at our online shop (www.wearecontributors.bigcartel.com), with all the proceeds going directly back to getting skateboards to kids across Canada.

What makes this project unique is that rather than people buying a already finished piece of artwork, their purchase will commission an artist/studio to make a board especially for them, so when it arrives, it’s an awesome surprise – kind of like a familiar chocolate with a hidden tasty centre!

ART SALE INFO
To see full listing of artists, please visit Read more

SUMMERTIME T-SHIRT SHOW BENEFIT FOR GIRLS ROCK CAMP FRIDAY JULY 16 FORTUNE 147 E. PENDER ST SHOW STARTS AT 11PM TICKETS ARE $10 AVAILABLE AT STUSSY, SHARKS&HAMMERS, DIPT & EL KARTEL

A Vanouver summertime benefit T-shirt show Friday July 16 11pm at Fortune Sound Club featuring local T-shirt designs worn by Vancouver girls that rock!

We have asked 17 local artists and designers to contribute their t-shirt designs to be worn by girls that rock out in our community. Each girl will select a t-shirt and rock it in their own style! We wish to bring everyone together to create an awesome local event through the celebration of local design and to create awareness for an amazing project Girls Rock Camp Vancouver! All proceeds raised will go to benefit Girls Rock Camp Vancouver! TICKETS are $10 (that’s cheaper than regular cover!) and are available at Dipt, Stussy, El Kartel & Sharks&Hammer’s
Hosted by Roxy (Love&Electrik) + All girl rock set by djcherchez Facebook event here

T-shirt designs by: El Kartel, Dan Climan , Calen Knauf – Stussy, Randy Laybourne -Looking Forward to the Past, Sharks&Hammers, Kaput, Ochio Grosso, Dope Girl Fresh, Jean Okada, Lifetime, Megadeystroyer, Domestic, Geographic Apparel, Die Constant, Cherchez La Femme, Vancity, Mental Wealth

As this is a VANCOUVERISAWESOME sponsored event we will be keeping you updated with interviews on all the local designers involved!

EVENT HERE

Over the course of last weekend I was lucky enough to be on board with team Livestock and the other couple thousand folks that made the two day bike trip from Vancouver to Seattle for the Ride To Conquer Cancer. There was the heaviest dose of Vancouver’s awesomeness along the way that I have seen in a long time! From the riders of ALL ages and bike variety (we saw a unicycle and a few tandems) to the cheering squads along the way, the incredible volunteers and of course all the people that made donations it all made for a truly memorable weekend. In the end, $9.2 million was raised for the BC Cancer Foundation! Whhhhaaaatttt?
I can’t encourage you enough to register for next years ride as it will surely be a highlight of your summer.

Be sure to head over to the Vogue Theatre (918 Granville St.) on Saturday, July 3rd at 7pm for the premiere of the highly anticipated Transworld motion picture, “Hallelujah”. Amongst the video’s ripping roster is Vancouver’s Ryan Decenzo. Admission is a mere 2 bucks with all proceeds going to the BC Children’s Hospital.

This post will lead you to a lot in terms of Vancouver-based feature skate videos that are now available for online grazing. First up is Share The Air by Kyutae Kim, which I’ve blogged about before; you can find the whole shabang right here. Next is Mike Graveline’s Simmer Down, which is web ready right here. Take some time to check these local videos out during sour weather or when you’re in full chill mode.

This coming June is the annual 2-day Ride to Conquer Cancer cycling event. Livestock has put together a team of 8 people from around the industry to participate: Garry Bone (Livestock), Matty Farr (Adidas), Mike Medland (Oakley), Jon Coleman (Simpl marketing), Emily Jenkins (SFU), Dylan Doubt (Color Magazine), Emanuel Krebs (thoughtpatterns.ca) and Kenta Goto (Write-Left, Brknhome). We’ll be cycling from Vancouver to Seattle along with a couple thousand other riders. All the proceeds will go to BC Cancer Foundation to support cancer research, treatment, and services. BC Cancer Foundation is a leading comprehensive institution devoted to cancer research and care, and the work they’re doing is cutting-edge.

As a team, they have commit to raising $22,800.00. We invite you to join us at Fortune Sound Club to support their main fundraising event this Friday, May 28th 2010 with MAD DECENT’S DJ SEGA and supported by Livestock family RICO UNO, BUTTER, MILA and GENIE. Your $10.00 minimum donation will be the best money you ever spent!

100% of the $10 tickets will be donated to the cause and will be available from Livestock West 4th, Gastown (www.deadstock.ca) and anyone of the LS cycling team. More info HERE.

Our bud, Dan Mangan, and friends are playing a benefit at the Polish Hall this Saturday for Aunt Leah’s Society. Basically they’ll all be playing Beatles cover songs, and it should prove to be quite awesome. Click HERE for details and to purchase tickets.