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Charity

Kelowna dinner and dance to raise money for orphans in India

KELOWNA - A fundraising dinner for a local orphan’s foundation is being held in Kelowna ahead of the start of the Indian Festival of Lights. Diwali, or the Festival of Lights, starts on Nov. 11 this year, but the Kelowna-based East Meets West Orphans Foundation dinner and dance will take place a month earlier, on...

Mom raises $14K for Cuddle Cots across Thompson-Okanagan

WEST KELOWNA – What started as an idea to bring to Kelowna General Hospital a device which gives parents of stillborn children a few extra days with their child will now help families across the entire Thompson-Okanagan. In less than three months West Kelowna resident Kristin Esmail has raised enough money to buy four Cuddle...

Sons of Anarchy actors coming to Konquer Kelowna

KELOWNA – Two actors from the hit TV show Sons of Anarchy will be in Kelowna for a charity fundraiser later this month on August 15. Kim Coates, who played Alex “Tig” Trager, and Theo Rossi, better known as Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz, will be at Konquer Motorcycles on August 15 to help raise money for...

Kelowna charity sending aid to Nepal

KELOWNA – A local charity that helps marginalized children around the world is collecting funds for displaced residents of Nepal after the worst earthquake to hit the country in nearly a century. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck near the capital of Kathmandu Saturday, April 25. The most recent numbers show more than 4,600 dead, but with...

ReStore opens Kelowna location

KELOWNA – After a very successful year in West Kelowna, Habitat for Humanity has opened another ReStore in the Central Okanagan, this time in Kelowna. Executive Director Deb Guthrie says the Kelowna ReStore, which takes in items donated from the public, resells them and uses the profits to build homes for families in need, is even bigger...

Mamas for Mamas to host charity gala

KELOWNA – A fast growing group of Okanagan moms who provide help and support for other moms in the area will hold their first ever fundraising gala this fall. And they are looking to the public for help with auction items. Mamas for Mamas founder Shannon Christensen says the group has grown so quickly that...

Run Like the Irish to raise money for charity

KELOWNA – Despite the dreary weather conditions there were lots of smiling faces for the first annual Run Like the Irish walk and run in Kelowna today. The Kelowna Professional Firefighters’ Chartable Society event on the Mission Creek Greenway, Saturday, March 14, raises money for local charities, according to the organization’s website. “100 per cent...

Lahey and Randy from Trailer Park Boys in Kelowna this week

KELOWNA – Two beloved actors from the Canadian cult TV show The Trailer Park Boys are coming to Kelowna Thursday. The actors who play the drunken trailer park manager Jim Lahey and his burger-loving, beer-bellied sidekick Randy will be making an appearance at Kelowna’s Habitat Feb. 19 at 9 p.m. The 'adults only' show will...

Local support group for mamas growing fast

KELOWNA – Shannon Christensen’s house isn’t cluttered with old baby things. She’s given them all away. She’s the founder of a relatively new non-profit organization that started in Kelowna last April. Mamas for Mamas is a network of caring mothers who look out for each other and give support whenever it’s needed. Since starting in...

How local Mamas helped a new Kelowna family overcome misfortune

KELOWNA – When Nelly Barclay talks about her family’s first week in Kelowna, she starts to cry. A new, non-profit group called Mamas for Mamas came to their aid when an accident left the family with little else but the clothes they were wearing. “I can’t even put it into words,” she says. “I can...

‘Tis the season to donate time and money

KELOWNA – It’s not only retailers counting on the holiday season to push the bottom line into the black. People open up their wallets and schedules for charities in greater numbers at Christmas time. It’s no different in Kelowna. You probably saw the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Campaign volunteers outside local retail shops. The money they...

Christmas dinner comes with a gift bag at Gospel Mission this year

KELOWNA – Christmas is the second busiest time of the year for the Kelowna Gospel Mission and this year more than 50 volunteers were on hand Saturday for their annual Christmas dinner. As was the case in years past, the Mission served around 600 dinners to hundreds of hungry residents between noon and 6 p.m....

Charity comes easy to this Kelowna family

KELOWNA – For the third year in a row a Mission family is showing that charity doesn’t have to be a lot of hard work. For the past two years, the de Haas family have partnered with a local pizza shop to donate more than a dozen pizzas they take to school and offer to...

Cops cram cruiser in Lake Country

LAKE COUNTRY – A sure sign Christmas can’t be far away; the Cram the Cruiser event was held in Lake Country on Saturday. The third annual event, put on by the Mounties from Kelowna and Lake Country, has been declared a huge success. The officers and RCMP volunteers invited the pubic to come cram a...

You can help build a Lake Country food bank with this simple gesture

LAKE COUNTRY – The food bank in Lake Country is asking for the public’s help winning a national competition that could put them one step closer to a much-needed new facility. The Aviva Community Fund is a Canada-wide contest soliciting community votes for ideas put forward by local non-profits and the winner gets a cash...

HELSTON: A small act of kindness will go a long way this Christmas

I’ll admit it; I tend to get my back up when I'm asked for money. My instinct is to terminate the uncomfortable conversation as quickly as possible with a ‘no, not today’ or some other firm, but polite, way of communicating the cause is not getting my hard earned cash. But I’m going to tell...

Get your jingle on; Christmas Kettle campaign underway

KELOWNA – There may not be much snow around to get you into the holiday spirit, but the sound of jingling bells might help as the annual Salvation Army Christmas Kettle campaign gets underway. Local politicians and celebrities gathered at Kelowna’s Walmart on Friday to take a shift at the kettle outside the department store....

Gospel Mission looking for help to stuff a bus

KELOWNA –  A sign winter is just around corner, the annual Stuff the Bus clothing drive for Kelowna’s less fortunate goes Saturday. “Although the weather is unseasonably warm right now, it still is very cold at night,” the Kelowna Gospel Mission’s Randy Benson says in a media release. “We have already seen an increase of...