Business in Vancouver welcomes submissions from local small businesses and large corporations alike that demonstrate examples of corporate philanthropy and community involvement in the Vancouver area. High-resolution images are also welcome.
Goldcorp donated $10 million to help Simon Fraser University contribute to the social, economic and cultural revitalization of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. To acknowledge the gift, the university’s new arts complex in the Woodward’s redevelopment will be named the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
Face the World Foundation donated $500,000 to Streetohome Foundation’s capital campaign to help break the cycle of homelessness.
HSBC Bank Canada donated $200,000 to support Clean Air Champions’ (CAC) national school program, HSBC Clean Air Achievers. The donation was marked by a celebrity tandem bike race at the University of British Columbia, which paired CAC athletes, including 2008 Olympic gold medal rower Adam Kreek, with Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs, HSBC president and CEO Lindsay Gordon and local media personalities such as CTV Vancouver news anchor Coleen Christie.
Concert Properties Ltd. raised $100,000 for the BCIT Trades Discovery Sponsorship Program at its 13th annual golf tournament.
TD raised $150,000 for children’s charities at its 12th Annual Dunk-a-Banker event.
Vancity members helped raise $60,360 for 18 different not-for-profit groups dedicated to providing safe housing for residents in their communities.
Boston Pizza Foundation donated $25,000 to the Zajac Ranch for Children for its campership program.
Standard Life has awarded a $23,000 grant to Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland and Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver to support the launch of the Dare to be a Kid Again joint volunteer recruitment campaign throughout the Lower Mainland.
The 20th BMO Grouse Grind Mountain Run raised funds for Grind For Kids, a local annual initiative that supports BC Children’s Hospital. Whistler Water matched the event day fundraising to bring the total contribution to $20,000.
The Vancouver Poppy Fund donated $20,000 to Tapestry Foundation for Health Care in support of a major garden renovation project at Brock Fahrni Pavilion. The new garden is being renewed to expand important green space at the site, which is home to a many armed forces veterans.
Granville Island Brewing(GIB) raised $13,500 for women’s cancers as its female staff walked in support of the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers. Partial proceeds from the sale of GIB’s Raspberry Wheat Ale were also included in the donation.
The BC Hospitality Foundation provided $5,000 in financial support to Brenda Derkacz, wife of Old Spaghetti Factory kitchen manager Adam Derkacz, to help fund family visits, child care and accommodation during her stay in Vancouver hospitals for a bone marrow transplant.
Mark Jaccard, a Simon Fraser University environmental economist whose work on sustainable energy and climate policy has garnered national and international acclaim, received the 2010 Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy.
The Downtown Vancouver BIA received two peer awards for its 2010 Winter Games business readiness initiatives: an award of merit from the International Downtown Association in the downtown leadership and management category, and winner of the national 2010 Associations Make a Better Canada Award in the public information/education category from the Canadian Society of Association Executives.
Alpha Gold Corp. received the British Columbia Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation’s 2009 Mineral Exploration Citation Award for outstanding achievement in reclamation at Lustdust, in north-central B.C.
Cactus Club Cafe’s Byrne Road location’s washrooms were named the finest in Canada in the first annual Canada’s Best Restroom contest presented by Cintas Corp.
The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board’s Commercial Building Awards included the following recipients: Judges’ Choice Award and Excellence Award, mixed-use commercial/residential: Woodward’s building redevelopment;Excellence Award, hospitality/hotel: Shangri-La Vancouver; Excellence Awards, green and industrial: False Creek Energy Centre; Excellence Award, commercial renovation/restoration: the Alhambra; Award of Merit, commercial renovation/restoration: Rennie Art Gallery & Offices; Excellence Award, community facility: West Vancouver Community Centre; Award of Merit, community facility: Mountain View Cemetery; Award of Merit, industrial: Refrigerative Supply Ltd.; Excellence Award, legacy: Vancouver Convention Centre West; Award of Merit, legacy: Richmond Olympic Oval; Award of Merit, mixed-use commercial/residential category: Millennium Water: Parcel 10; and Award of Merit, mixed-use commercial/residential category: London Station Phase 2.
Recipients of the 2010 BCIC Awards included: Rhonda Wideman, UBC Prevention of Organ Failure Centre of Excellence (Ripples of Hope Award for Biotechnology & Entrepreneurship); Barry Duplantis and Neil Duplantis, DuVax (Emerging Technology Award); Bozena Kaminska, SFU professor and Canada research chair, wireless sensor networks (Entrepreneurship Fellow Award). BCIC-New Ventures Competition Awards recipients included: Hiretheworld.com, Solegear Bioplastics Inc. and Quadrogen Power Systems. Solegear also won the BC Hydro sustainability prize and BCIC Economic Impact prize. The BC Bioenergy Network prize went to Quadrogen.