Vancouver Giants – Feel Good Fridays

KSW Lawyers in partnership with our friends at the Vancouver Giants have organized the Feel Good Fridays community initiative that ran between June and July 24, 2020.

Over the course of the initiative, we wanted to reward people in our communities for their special contributions during these difficult times, and did so with your help! Prizes included gift certificates purchased from local re-opened businesses to show our support for our local marketplace.

Featured Local Businesses

We love supporting local businesses, especially in times like this when they need it the most. Gift cards for the following local businesses were provided to the winners for Feel Good Friday!

• Spa Tru Clinics
• The Hockey Shop
• S+L Kitchen & Bar
• Trading Post Brewing Company
• Milner Feed & Pet Supply
• Me & Eds Pizza Parlors
• Cedarbrook Bakery & Deli
• Backyard Vineyards

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FEEL GOOD FRIDAY HEROES

This week we want to recognize Melody and her team at Yogi Street Dog Rescue!

“Yogi Street Dog Rescue brings dogs to Canada for a second chance at life and raises money to feed dogs that are living on the streets without a warm place to sleep!”

Thanks for all your hard work Melody! We have purchased a gift card to local business Milner Feed & Pet Supply for Melody!

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FeelGoodFriday July 10 Winner: Nicole Saxvik Essential worker

Our Feel Good Friday winner this week is Nicole Saxvik! Nicole is an essential worker who has been working very hard over the last few months conducting in-home assessments to ensure seniors’ homes are outfitted with the mobility equipment they need. Thanks for all your hard work Nicole!We have purchased a gift card to local business Milner Feed & Pet Supply for Nicole!

Next exciting prizes include gift cards to: Spa Tru Clinics Trading Post Brewing Backyard Vineyards

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FeelGoodFriday July 3 Winner: Nicole Longacre-OBrien, UPS Langley Wonderful positive attitude

This week we want to recognize Nicole Longacre-OBrien, from UPS Langley – Nicole always goes above and beyond for coworkers and people in our community.

“Nicole has always been a huge part of the Langley community, and approaches everything with such a positive attitude. She always goes above and beyond for everyone she works with, but last week she did something NEXT level.” When an elderly member of our community went to Nicole’s store to inquire about computer video services for a zoom call with her friends during these difficult times of separation, Nicole didn’t shy away from the perfect opportunity to give back to her community and help. She offered her personal laptop and private space, and set up a zoom date for the group!

In her own words, here is the story – read more from UPS Langley’s post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBV2bxjB1KF/

The world is a sad and angry place right now ???? but I would like to remind you about the POWER OF KINDNESS ????. Last week we had this little elderly lady come into the store to see if we had a computer she could borrow so she could have a zoom call with all her friends. Although it wasn’t a service we provide…my answer was..”of course YES!!” I let her know that none of my computers had video capability but I would bring my laptop in so she could enjoy some time with her friends in my back room. She was thrilled and went off to set a date ❤️She checked in a few times during the week to make sure we were still ok with her doing it. Well yesterday was the day (…)

Our gift for this week’s hero is a $100 to Trading Post Brewing.

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FeelGoodFriday June 26 Winner: Dan Morrison, Foreman, Giants Fan, Awesome Dad

This week we want to recognize Dan Morrison; Foreman, Giants Fan and most importantly, awesome Dad!

“Dan is an essential worker and has been working full-time during this entire quarantine, while still coming home everyday after work and spending the evenings looking after our daughter so I can have a few hours off. He is always happy, always smiling. He is a phenomenal family man, and an extremely valued Foreman at work. He is the epitome of a wonderful human!” says his wife Carey-Anne

Our gift for this week’s hero is a $100 to Trading Post Brewing.

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FeelGoodFriday June 19 Winner: Carrie, Supermom of 2 boys

This Friday we wish to recognize and appreciate Carrie, supermom of two boys.

Carrie was nominated by one of her sons, who wanted to recognize her for her all her help with his school work, for making him awesome lunches and for encouraging him to keep practicing hockey and keep active during the pandemic. “She is the best,” he noted in his nomination.

Carrie will receive $150 to The Hockey Shop Source for Sports in Surrey to help with continuing to keep her boys active and engaged.

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FeelGoodFriday June 12 Winner: Wes and Brant at Sheila’s Catering

This Friday we wish to recognize and appreciate the Sheila’s Catering Co. team for their contributions to their community! Wes will receive a gift card to our wonderful local Cedarbrook Bakery, Deli & Bistro in Langley. Here’s a bit of what they do on a regular basis, and how they helped during these times.  

Sheila’s Catering Co. is owned by local residents Wes Levesque and Brant Darling and was founded in 2009 in South Surrey. They have over 40 years combined in the restaurant/catering industry and have won several awards including best caterer in the Peace Arch News 2017-present.

Sheila’s Catering Co. caters all types of functions and is heavily involved in the community and many non profit organizations locally.  Once the pandemic was announced Wes and Brant followed their core values of ACCEPTED (Adaptability, Community, Collaboration, Engagement, Positivity, Teamwork, Expression, Development) which guided them into pivoting their operations. Within a couple weeks they had launched on online marketplace offering prepared meals and more importantly built the framework to launch an initiative to feed the frontline workers.

Since that day of March 26 they have fed over 5000 frontline workers at Peace Arch Hospital, Surrey Memorial, Delta Hospital and many care homes around the community. All of these meals were donated by the community.

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FeelGoodFriday June 5 Winner: Simon Gau at CityReach Care Society

The first Feel Good Friday hero we want to recognize and appreciate is Simon Gau at the CityReach Care Society. Simon received a gift card to our local business S+L Kitchen and Bar in Langley. The CityReach Care Society has always made incredible contributions to their communities through their different programs, and moreso during the pandemic. Here is a bit of what Simon had to say on what they do:

At CityReach we are in the HOPE business. We have a number of different programs and events to serve our community in both Vancouver and the Tri-Cities. We offer an Out Of School Care Program with 35 full time students. We have a monthly Community Closet where people can come and get good second hand clothes. We give out free school backpacks with supplies and offer free haircuts to kids each year as they go back to school. We do Christmas Hampers for families with wrapped toys for kids. We have special relationships with local elementary and high schools called Adopt-A-School where we can offer unique access to our programs and finial aid with specific projects. We even have our own Bee Apiary to do our part in “thinking green” for our community.

Most notably during COVID-19, we have see the radical growth of 3 programs: Food For Families, Food For Families Mobile, and Meals To Go. Food For Families is a healthy food bank that has grown over 600% since the start of the pandemic. We are packing and distributing 700 free family-sized grocery hampers every week. Hampers are filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, grains, dairy, meat, and even fresh prepared meals! We have partnered with Broadway Church and they have generously offered to deliver 200 of our hampers to families, single parents, and seniors, who can’t access our program due to health conditions. Food For Families Mobile is simply a mobile pop-up version of our program where we bring fresh grocery hampers directly into a new community in South Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Coquitlam. Meals To Go is a program where we serve a free fresh and healthy lunch to vulnerable people 5 days a week. Currently we serve over 350 meals per week with this program. We have seen a spike in vulnerable families accessing our programs in response to COVID-19. We are honoured that the community trusts us enough to let us walk with them during these unprecedented times.

Lastly, I love to add a huge THANK YOU to our amazing volunteers and food security partners without whom our programs would not be possible. CityReach is proof that when a community comes together amazing things can happen.

Here’s a picture of some of our some of staff and volunteers at a community event in February.

Who is KSW Lawyers?

KSW Lawyers is one of the biggest full service law firms South of the Fraser. We are here to support you during these uncertain and challenging times.

We want to help you, your business and your employees by sharing our knowledge and information.

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