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Category: Volunteering

An American in Kelowna – Heel of an Effort for Shoe Bank Canada

An American in Kelowna – Heel of an Effort for Shoe Bank Canada

In the candy-cane lyrics of pop-princess Britney Spears: “Oops!… I did it again.” Did what? Collected donated shoes (women’s, men’s, and children’s) on behalf of Shoe Bank Canada at various sites in Kelowna in our second annual Christmas Holiday promotion.     Based on last year’s benchmark of amassing 803 pairs of shoes, we had a tried-and-true formula for finding footwear by setting up Shoe Bank Canada donation bins in the following locations:  Kelowna General Hospital (three separate entrances), UBC…

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An American in Kelowna – Reaching the Seven-Month Mark and Feeling Lucky

An American in Kelowna – Reaching the Seven-Month Mark and Feeling Lucky

I woke up exactly at 7 this morning realizing that it’s exactly 7 months today that I arrived in my exact location of 1470 Ethel Street.  Guess I’m feeling lucky. The number 7 is a heavy hitter in the gambling world – slot machines often offer three 7’s as the big payout. Then there’s James Bond as 007, the 7th-inning stretch, 7 seas, 7 continents, 7 dwarfs, 7 deadly sins, 7 brides for 7 brothers, 7 colors in a rainbow,…

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An American in Kelowna – How I “Soled Out” 803 Ways Thanks to UBC Southern Medical Program and Kelowna General Hospital

An American in Kelowna – How I “Soled Out” 803 Ways Thanks to UBC Southern Medical Program and Kelowna General Hospital

Ho Ho Ho – it has bin one heel of a steel-toed journey with Soles4Souls Canada and the Kelowna Sunrise Rotary Shoe Bank.         On November 25 – we decked the halls and placed shoe-donation drop bins at four locations:  Kelowna General Hospital main entrance and Rose Avenue entrance; UBC Clinical Academic Campus, 2nd floor reception; and at UBC Okanagan Reichwald, centre reception.           A Christmas flyer had already been circulated electronically encouraging…

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An American in Kelowna – Boots on the Ground at the Kelowna Sunrise Rotary Shoe Bank

An American in Kelowna – Boots on the Ground at the Kelowna Sunrise Rotary Shoe Bank

www.soles4soulscanada.com [email protected] One my first morning volunteering at the Kelowna Shoe Bank, I took this request from a dubious customer: “I need a pair of runners, size 10. Do you have those?” “Gee, sir, I’m not sure?” was my rookie retort. “Let’s go back to the main showroom and check out our inventory.” Before leading him into the shoe room, I had to pull shoe maven (and boss lady) Donna Moyer aside and ask her “what runners were?” She laughed…

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An American in Kelowna – Totally Swamped at the Kelowna Community Food Bank

An American in Kelowna – Totally Swamped at the Kelowna Community Food Bank

Elaine was right. She had been advising me that Kelowna had a tight-knit business community where “everybody kinda knew everybody.” A few weeks after I arrived in town, I got wind of a week-long basketball camp taking place at a local high school. After communicating with the camp director, I found out a referee boot camp was simultaneously taking place. Music to my whistle-while-you-work ears. I needed to explore options and make connections. On a Wednesday night I slipped into…

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An American in Kelowna: Lots of Buzz at the Kelowna Community Food Bank

An American in Kelowna: Lots of Buzz at the Kelowna Community Food Bank

The Kelowna Community Food Bank is darn lucky to have its own version of BuzzFeed. No, it’s not some kind of copycat Internet news media company. This version is offline and goes by the name of Buzz Kline. Buzz is a true man-about-town harvester. I’d call him the MVP (Most Valuable Pickup-Artist). Five days a week, Monday thru Friday, the 63-year-old part-time employee drives the Food Bank donations truck around Kelowna, Glenmore, Rutland, and Mission for donated-food pickups. He starts…

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An American in Kelowna: Remembrance Day 2014 – The Sights and Sounds of Patriotism

An American in Kelowna: Remembrance Day 2014 – The Sights and Sounds of Patriotism

November 11, 2014 will certainly go down as a noteworthy day to remember. In the United States – it was Veteran’s Day. In Canada – Remembrance Day. Both honor the memories of fallen comrades and those who currently serve. On this bone-chilling Tuesday morning (-2 Celsius, 28-degrees Fahrenheit), Shaw Cablesystems had invited to me to be part of its broadcast team covering the Remembrance Day Program at Cenotaph Memorial Square in Kelowna’s City Park. I had recently signed up for…

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