For Chris Currie, this year’s golf-a-thon to raise money for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, hits very close to home.
Currie’s father, Leonard, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis last June at 72. It was one year after being diagnosed with the disease, a neurological disorder in which all muscles gradually lose the ability to function.
“And he had always loved to play golf,” said the golf sales manager at Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort and Spa.
So on Tuesday, when Bear Mountain’s two golf pros, Jordan Ray and Jaegan Patron, tee off at dawn to play 100 holes of golf, Currie will play alongside.
It’s part of an annual event across the province. Each June, members of the Professional Golf Association of B.C. tee off and play an entire day’s worth of golf to raise money for ALS.
The event has been going for 10 years. Participating professional golfers play from sunup to sundown, or 100 holes in total, depending on the course.
Last year, the fundraising total from all years past surpassed $1 million. And last year alone, the Bear Mountain event surpassed $4,400, almost double the original goal. This year, the goal is $5,000.
Currie admits he is not even close to being a golf pro. “When you see my swing, it’s not hard to tell.” But since his father died of ALS, he approached the two pros to see if they would mind if he joined them.
“And they both said: ‘Yeah, of course,’ ” he said.
Speakers explore life after brain injury
More than half of people living homeless and 70 per cent of the prison population has suffered a brain injury, according to Victoria’s Cridge Centre for the Family.
Nevertheless, speakers such as former army Capt. Charles Trevor Greene will talk at an event on Wednesday about how a full life is possible after a brain injury, even a catastrophic one.
While serving in Afghanistan in 2006 as a Canadian Army reservist, Greene removed his helmet as a sign of respect for village elders. A 16-year-old Afghan boy bludgeoned him from behind with an axe.
Greene survived and now gives motivational talks.
Joanne Specht, communications director for the Cridge Centre, Victoria’s oldest charity, says too little public appreciation is given to how brain injuries can contribute to social problems.
These injuries can affect physical movements, making work difficult. They can lead to emotional issues such as problems with anger management. Patients can lose jobs and connections with family and friends.
“For many of them, the brain injury was the catalyst for the downward spiral,” Specht says.
Wednesday’s event is open to anyone with an interest. But Specht says it’s aimed especially at caregivers, professionals, and close family and friends.
Survive to Thrive: Restoring Life after Brain Injury runs at the University of Victoria from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Bob Wright Centre, Room B150. Registration is at 9 a.m. Admission is free.
New machine promises earlier cancer diagnosis
Medical equipment, such as the latest digital mammography machine, is not just about equipping hospitals but also about building community, says the head of the Victoria Hospitals Foundation.
Melanie Mahlman, executive director of the foundation, said by helping to stock the Victoria General and Royal Jubilee hospitals with the best and most modern gear, we can also attract the best and brightest doctors, nurses and other health specialists.
“We want bright, highly skilled, well-trained people who want to work here,” Mahlman said.
So when community members donate to the Victoria Hospitals Foundation, they can take satisfaction they are also investing in their own community.
The Victoria Hospitals Foundation helps replace or install about 40 per cent of the capital equipment in Victoria’s hospitals by raising money.
Its latest campaign is to raise $420,000 for a mammography and stereotactic biopsy machine, allowing doctors a better way to diagnose earlier and with a more accurate location.
The Victoria Foundation is also sending out special gratitude to Pacific Blue Cross for a nearly $14,000 gift to equip the Royal Jubilee’s intensive-care cardio unit with a four-channel IV pump.
The machine will allow caregivers the ability to deliver up to four medications at once, all of them in precise dosages.
Pacific Blue Cross also helped out in 2013 with a $36,000 donation to buy dialysis chairs for the renal unit.
Anyone interested in helping Victoria Hospitals Foundations can call 250-519-1750 or go online to victoriahf.ca.
Tourism industry rewards promising student
Tourism is a growing industry requiring a full drawer of skills and knowledge, says Paul Nursey, president of Tourism Victoria.
So Nursey said his organization is happy to honour a person such as Mary Buss, graduate of Camosun College’s Hospitality Management program.
Buss was presented with the Tourism Victoria Award and $500 on June 11. She achieved top marks in her program and hopes to work in Victoria.
Nursey said he doubts Buss will have to wait long for a job. The hospitality sector is dealing with a labour shortage and has many opportunities.
“We really need young leaders to stay on here in Victoria,” said Nursey.
NHL vet O’Byrne helps kids with gear
Thanks to Victoria-grown National Hockey League veteran Ryan O’Byrne, 26 kids from hard-pressed families will suit up in new gear this fall.
O’Byrne, through his Ryan O’Byrne Youth Sport Society, has teamed up with the NHL Players’ Association, Wood Gundy, RBC, Manulife, Fidelity, KidSport Victoria and Kirby’s Source for Sports to buy the gear.
The gear was presented to 26 deserving kids in a ceremony Saturday at Kirby’s Source for Sports, 894 Cloverdale Ave.
Patti Hunter, general manager of KidSport Victoria, said the group also tries to help out families with things like the cost of registration in minor hockey and the gear.
Families, often newly immigrated to Canada, can use a little help to enrol their kids in hockey since it can be so expensive.
The kids who get the gear just love it, said Hunter. “It’s like Christmas in June.”
Hunter also said KidSport is lucky and grateful for the continued support of someone like O’Byrne. This is the fourth year he has stepped in to help kids in Victoria.
A graduate of St. Michaels University School, O’Byrne was drafted 79th in 2003 by the Montreal Canadiens. He played hockey at Cornell University on a scholarship.
He played his first NHL game for the Canadiens in 2007 against the Boston Bruins. O’Bryne would play three years in Montreal before he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche and later Toronto Maple Leafs in 2013.
He is one of a few NHL veterans to tally 300 games in the league and now sits on the executive board of the NHLPA, has been named assistant coach of the Victoria Grizzlies and is on the team’s advisory board.
Tuba concert supports new scholarship fund
The tuba, with its deep, harrumphing,“umpah” sound can be the stuff of cartoon soundtracks. But for music instructor Scott MacInnes the tuba holds an orchestra down.
Like the bass guitar in a good rock band, its sound is often not immediately apparent. But without it, the music has no body.
“I think for an orchestra, in particular, it provides a breadth of sound,” said MacInnes, who teaches trombone at the University of Victoria.
On Saturday, June 28, the Pinnacle Brass Band and guests will play a concert in Victoria to raise money for the Eugene Dowling Tuba Scholarship.
Dowling, also an instructor at UVic, has long been associated in Victoria with the tuba. For the past 36 years he has led a tuba ensemble during the Christmas season at the annual Tuba Christmas Victoria.
The upcoming concert is meant to help students interested in the tuba, an instrument that can cost $10,000.
The concert will be at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 28, at St. John the Divine Church, 1611 Quadra St. Admission is by donation but $20 is suggested.
Disabled man receives much-needed hand cycle
Students at Sprott Shaw College and a local Good Samaritan have teamed up to help a Victoria man with disabilities to become more mobile.
Shaun Kennett, a 41-year-old man born with spina bifida, recently underwent surgery to remove tumours from his back. After the surgery, it was recommended he get a hand cycle to help with his recovery. But they cost $3,200.
So students at Sprott Shaw stepped up last month with a car wash to raise money. After their event raised $1,500, a local philanthropist pitched in to furnish the rest.
Sprott Shaw career adviser Phil Nealy, himself a paraplegic, said he wanted to help out someone who was falling through cracks in the system.
Nealy said Kennett works part time for B.C. Ambulance and earns just enough to disqualify himself for benefits. So the assistance for the hand cycle is well-received and deserved.
‘Heart Sisters’ raise money for heart, stroke
Two Cordova Elementary School girls are joined closer than the hip. They are joined at the heart, since both have undergone open-heart surgery.
Haleigh Miklic, 10, and Dawson Nemeth, 7, were both born with ventricular septal defect, a hole in the heart that prevents blood from circulating properly. They both underwent surgery before six months of age and are now happy and energetic.
Also, they both now campaign to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation with the Jump Rope for Heart event.
Haleigh, in particular, has been doing it since she was in kindergarten and has enlisted Dawson.
“They’ve been called ‘Heart Heroes,’” said Dawson’s mom, Brenda. “But they like to call themselves ‘Heart Sisters.’”
Watch the HarbourCats, help the READ Society
Baseball fans will get a chance to strike out reading problems when they attend the Victoria HarbourCats home game on June 28.
The Victoria READ Society will be selling tickets to the game for $10, with $3 of every ticket sold going to the society. Also, a representative of the group will speak to the crowd from home plate.
And the society gets to operate that day’s 50/50 draw.
The Victoria READ Society operates programs and assessments to assist kids, youth and adults with reading, writing and mathematics.
According to the READ Society, about 30 per cent of Canadians are living with a reading ability below the level ranked as minimum for good functioning in modern society.
To buy a ticket to the READ society HarbourCats game on June 28 go to eventbrite.ca or contact the office at 250-388-7225 for details.
