It will be an exciting night for one lucky gala attendee.
At the May 8 Sea to Sky Gala, a fundraiser for the Sea to Sky Community Services Centrepoint development, one ticket buyer will win a 10-day trip for two to the Antarctic.
The unique door prize at the event to be held at the Sea to Sky Gondola is a donation from Squamish鈥檚 One Ocean Expeditions, the polar expedition cruise ship operator that helped find the fabled Franklin Expedition鈥檚 HMS Erebus in the summer of 2014.
Gala volunteer event organizer Sonja Lebans said the nature of the fundraising event changed completely when the One Ocean donation was made.
鈥淢y plan was to do a small event that would raise maybe $10,000 and that would raise community awareness about Centrepoint,鈥� Lebans said.
鈥淥nce we were looking at [the cruise] as a door prize, we realized we were into much bigger and grander things.鈥�
Lebans said from the gala, at least $26,000 鈥� money from the 200 tickets already sold 鈥� will go into Centrepoint.
Estelle聽Taylor, Sea to Sky Community Services communications and fundraising manager, said the donation shows local businesses care about helping local people through the new centre.
鈥淭ogether, we鈥檙e building a wonderful building that offers a homegrown solution for strengthening individuals and the community,鈥澛燭aylor said in a news release.
Centrepoint, the long-awaited downtown facility that will include community rooms, a preschool, programming rooms for a wide range of social services, affordable housing and office spaces, is a partnership between Sea to Sky Community Services and Squamish United Church.
One Ocean聽Expeditions鈥� Catherine Lawton said the development project was an easy one for the company to support.
鈥淭he social value of the project, for Squamish, especially in the downtown core is extraordinary,鈥� said Lawton. 鈥淲e all think it is time that something like that was made possible, so it is really exciting to be involved with it.鈥�
According to Taylor, the charity will be applying this month for the building permit for Centrepoint.
The gala will include guest speaker David Helfand of Quest University and the band Ginger 66.聽
For more information go to seatoskygala.ca.
