Guatemalan poches will soon be eating like kings courtesy of Royal City diners.
For the second consecutive year, Leona Green of Greens and Beans Deli and Coun. Lorrie Williams will be joining local lawyer Angela Kerslake for Christmas in Guatemala, where they will be volunteering at the Animal Aware Guatemala’s shelter. In preparation for the trip, Green has been raising funds for the shelter at her Sapperton eatery.
“My goal this year is to find 100 people to each pay for one bag of dog food. I started this campaign at the beginning of December and am at 92 bags – at $28 each. I am amazed that this has worked though I shouldn't be surprised at how wonderful people really are,” she said in a Dec. 12 email to the Record. “By next Friday (Dec. 22) I am sure I will have reached my target and more.”
Green, a longtime supporter of various charitable causes around town, has been touched by some of the responses to her fundraising campaign for Animal Aware Guatemala.
“At the deli this morning, a little four-year-old named Ben came behind the counter with a fist full of $5 bills and said, ‘Elona, this is for the hungry doggies.’ And yes, he calls me Elona. So cute,” she wrote. “I was at the hairdresser this morning and when I asked what I owed she said, ‘Nothing, please buy a bag of dog food for me.’ I got $60 and a letter from two pit bulls saying they wanted to donate their allowance to the poor dogs in Guatemala. It makes me cry just thinking about it.”
Green sends a big thank you out to all the folks around town who have supported her campaign.
“It is going to be so nice to be able to buy so much food for the shelter as they are in dire need at the moment,” she said.
New West casino helps Variety
Starlight Casino has donated $5,000 to Variety the Children’s Charity as part of Gateway GIVES’ 25 Days of Giving.
Gateway GIVES is Gateway Casino’s corporate giving and community-engagement program, which is allowing employees in each of the communities where Gateway operates to contribute $5,000 to a local charity. The campaign, in celebration of Gateway’s 25th anniversary, will see $125,000 donated to charities across Canada.
“The 25 Days of Giving has been a campaign that reflects the type of organization we are as Gateway,” said Starlight Casino general manager Lisa Mak in a press release. “Our company has been operating 25 years now because of the people behind it.”
Chris Lowe, director of development for Variety – the Children’s Charity of B.C., said it’s delighted to have been selected as part of Gateway Casinos’ 25 Days of Gifting.
“Over a decade ago, Variety B.C. was honoured to provide a grant to a young man whose nomination all these years later as a Gateway Casino staff member has made this gift possible,” Lowe said in a press release. “His desire to pay forward the support he received speaks volumes about his character, and indeed this entire campaign speaks volumes about Gateway Casinos as a community leader and great corporate citizens. The $5,000 will go a long way in improving the lives of B.C. children and families. Thank you, Gateway, and congratulations on 25 years.”
