Live in North Burnaby?
The Burnaby Neighbourhood House wants to hear from you.
Residents in that area are being asked to fill out an online survey to help guide the direction of the North House, located at 4908 Hastings St. The organization provides a host of services, including community dinners, on-the-job training experience for students, activities and workshops for seniors, and more.
The North House reopened its doors last year after relocating from the corner of Willingdon and Hastings Street to its current home.
“The survey is mostly to find out what’s missing according to people in the neighbourhood,” said Simone Brandl, program director at North House. “Maybe they want more than just a program that they come to and leave; they want a program that they come to, they meet people, they become part of the neighbourhood.”
The questionnaire can be found at tinyurl.com/NorthBurnabySurvey and will be available up until the first week of January, added Brandl. She emphasized the Neighbourhood House is different than other centres because it has a steering committee made up of board members and local residents.
“We’re run by community for community. It’s not like we’re parks and rec, where we have a fee for things. It is built by community members who live in North Burnaby.”
Once all the survey data is processed, Brandl and her team will move forward on adjusting the Neighbourhood House’s programming.
Help wrap gifts at Metropolis at Metrotown
Meanwhile, Burnaby Neighbourhood House is looking for volunteers to gift wrap at Metropolis at Metrotown.
Each year, the organization has a booth at the mall, where shoppers can have their gifts wrapped for a small donation. All funds raised support Neighbourhood House programs and services.
Anyone interested in volunteering (from Nov. 24 to Dec. 24) will need to go through a wrapping orientation session. For more details, email [email protected] or visit www.burnabynh.ca.
Pirate House success
The community did not disappoint during this year’s Pirate House fundraiser.
A total of $1,350 was raised on Halloween, well over the goal of $600.
For five years now, Julie Desroches has decked out her front lawn with an elaborate Halloween display dubbed Boozabuzza Island. The event raises money for St. Stephen’s Children’s Centre in Uganda.
“We will now be able to cover the licensing fees for St. Stephen’s to become an official public school in Uganda, build foundations for our rainwater harvesting tanks, and cover some of the costs of the teachers’ salaries this term,” she wrote in an email to subscribers. “Thank you so much! We are so appreciative of your ongoing generosity year after year.”
For the dogs
A local filmmaker recently raised around $2,000 for his documentary Stories with Fleas.
Thommy Morais held a fundraiser on Nov. 11 at The Great Bear Pub in Burnaby to support the movie, which sheds light on Chile’s stray dog population and brings awareness to responsible dog adoption.
“The night was all for dog food donations and surprisingly received more than 180 kg worth of dog food, which was donated to go all over Chile. People are loving the movie as we had 200 people,” he wrote in an email to the NOW.
Morais noted he’s not done raising money. He’s set up an Indiegogo fundraising page – tinyurl.com/StoriesWithFleas – that will run until the end of December. The hope is to return to Chile at the end of January and film the second half of the documentary.
