On the evening of October 5th, 2013, at St. Agnes’, North Vancouver located on East 12th Avenue at Grand Boulevard there was a very special celebration.
Seventy-six guests, and nineteen others; cooks, servers, helpers and band members filled the St. Agnes’ parish hall to capacity. The make-up of the guest list was half St. Agnes parishioners and the other half friends and family, a goodly number from the area surrounding the church.
There were many highlights of this successful event, however the stars of the show were the beautiful harvest-themed decorations designed and implemented by principal event organizer, Mo Chechini and her team that turned a church hall into an elegant ballroom – banquet hall, a fitting venue for the superb three course gourmet meal prepared by Bette Geddes of Sharing Abundance catering.Other highlights included: the Chancellor of the Diocese of New Westminster and St. Agnes’ parishioner, George Cadman as auctioneer; Original Blend jazz band, 9 members including St. Agnes’ incumbent, the Reverend Stephen Muir on drums; four large tables of silent auction items featuring a broad range of donated gifts and services, among which were, four hours of gardening, custom made pottery, and VSO tickets; live auction items which included a child's size toy Mecedes Benz and a night on the town package featuring tickets to a BC Lions game, a night at the Bayshore Inn Hotel and free limo service.
The Gala on 12th met its fundraising target of $5000. St Agnes’ is used by 14 different community groups involving hundreds of community residents. St. Agnes’ also hosts community meals with Sharing Abundance, St. Agnes’ deacon, the Reverend Lizz Lindsay's food ministry. The gala raised funds to support the church’s continuing mission and ministry in the community, helping to ensure that the parish and church building’s presence continues for the benefit of the North Vancouver neighbourhood for years to come.The next event at St. Agnes’, North Vancouver will be the Annual Christmas Fayre featuring: crafts, baking, preserves and much more on Saturday, November 9th.
Images: Top and homepage, each of the tables was decorated with iconic images of autumn. Upper right, a child’s-sized Mercedes SUV was one of the live auction items. Lower left, The Reverend Lizz Lindsay staffed the bar. Below, Original Blend jazz band get their photo taken, drummer, the Reverend Stephen Muir far right, Below 2, beautiful harvest-themed decorations.