St. Barnabas Church is inviting community members to help it turn up the heat.
The church is holding a Latino dance party of Saturday, Feb. 14 to raise funds to help cover the costs of replacing furnaces at the church and hall.
Rev. Emilie Smith said two furnaces in the church and two in the hall were very old and needed to be replaced.
“We got them in the summer. We need to pay back our loan,” she said. “It was about $20,000 to get the four furnaces.”
Once rebates are factored into the mix, St. Barnabas still has a loan of about $16,000 to cover the cost of the energy-efficient furnaces. Along with raising money to pay down a chunk of the mortgage, the church looks at fundraisers as a way of building community and having some fun.
Turn Up The Heat features music by DJ La Salsomana, dance lessons and performances, raffles and prizes, and refreshments and food.
“It’s a Latino dance party. It’s winter – we might need a little more blood flowing,” Smith said. “We have a wonderful Colombian DJ. She is the best – La Salsomana. She is a Colombian-Canadian. She is a great DJ and blows the roof off.”
The church is trying to round up a dance instructor who can provide guests with a mini dance lesson, but Smith said people don’t need to know how to do the salsa or merengue to have fun.
“It’s just about coming and enjoying sharing time, and raising a little bit of money,” she said.
The St. Barnabas Church hall will be decorated for the night. Coun. Chuck Puchmayr will be MC’ing the night’s festivities.
Tickets are $20 and available at the church office, 1010 Fifth Ave. For more information, call 604-526-6646.
On the waterfront
If you have a photo of the dock demolition of Pacific Coast Terminals, the city’s museum would love to see it.
The New Westminster Museum, in partnership with Simon Fraser University, is hard at work on preparations for its summer exhibition, Our Working Waterfront. The exhibit will shed some light on the dramatic changes to the waterfront since the 1940s through the use of objects, images and stories related to the history of work on the waterfront.
The museum recently issued a “call to contribute” for a variety of items sought for the exhibit. Items requested include objects from Royal City Cannery, Pacific Veneer, Columbia Street (such as items from notable businesses like the King Edward Hotel, Pacific Café, Fraser Café, Windsor, The Russell, Eaton’s, Army and Navy, etc., Copp’s Shoes and Columbia Theatre).
In addition, the museum is also trying to find a photograph of the dock demolition of Pacific Coast Terminals – the area now home to Westminster Quay condos – that took place in July 1983.
The museum is located in the Anvil Centre at 777 Columbia St. It’s open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with extended hours on Thursdays till 8 p.m.). Admission is by donation.
If you have any items to contribute to the upcoming exhibit, contact museum curator Oana Capota at 604-515-3842 or [email protected].
Help put a cap on homelessness
Toque Tuesday may have come and gone, but you still have time to support efforts to end homelessness.
Pacific Community Resources Society and the Lookout Emergency Aid Society joined forces to organize the local Toque Tuesday campaign. Volunteers hit the streets on Feb. 3 to sell toques and socks for $10 to raise awareness about homelessness and funds for the two organizations, as well as
Raising the Roof, a national charity that aims to provide long-term solutions to homelessness.
People who were unable to buy a toque on Toque Tuesday can purchase them online at www.raisingtheroof.org.
