Helping out with Valentine's Day pizzas

This Valentine's Day, as in past years, Boston Pizza is all heart.

The Burnaby location on Lougheed Highway near Brentwood Town Centre will be raising funds for the BP Foundation with its heart-shaped pizzas, according to Erin Shklanka, community relations coordinator for the Burnaby location.

Boston Pizza will donate $1 from every sale of its heart-shaped pizzas to its foundation, supporting national charities such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Kids Help Phone and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, according to the foundation's website.

Leading up to Valentine's Day, the restaurant will be selling paper hearts for $2, and that money will go to the foundation as well, Shklanka said.

"This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Boston Pizza Valentine's Day promotion. We are grateful to all of our guests across the country for their ongoing support and donations," Cheryl Treliving, executive director of the Boston Pizza Foundation, said in a press release. "Over the past two decades, our Valentine's Day promotion has helped us raise awareness and more than $4 million to benefit many charities across Canada."

REALTORS HELP OUT

Six local real estate offices in Burnaby collected warm blankets and clothing for the homeless this winter, with items going to more than 900 people in Burnaby and New Westminster, according to Fiona Youatt, communications coordinator for the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Donations went to the Salvation Army in Burnaby and the Union Gospel Mission in New West, she added in an email to the NOW.

The 18th annual Realtors Care Blanket Drive collected enough donations to help more than 19,000 people in the Lower Mainland, according to a press release from the board, and has helped more than 205,000 people since 1994.

UGLY SWEATERS WIN VOTES

The votes are in, and Burnaby isn't on the worst dressed list this year - at least when it comes to the Community Savings Credit Union's ugly sweater contest.

The winner of the local credit union's second annual contest was Latika Singh, a loans interviewer in Surrey.

Six employees from the credit union's Burnaby branch also participated.

The public was invited to vote online in December for the worst fashion offender. For each vote, the credit union pledged to donate $1 to Food Banks B.C. up to a maximum of $1,000.

"Our website, www.wowthatisugly. com, attracted 1,780 visitors, an increase of over 600 from last year!" Kirsten Allen, marketing coordinator for the credit union, wrote in an email to the NOW. "While our winning staff member is from the Surrey branch, the true winner is Food Banks B.C., who will receive a $1,000 donation."

The credit union's head office is based in Surrey, with six branches throughout the Lower Mainland and Victoria.

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