VANCOUVER B.C. – For the 18th year in a row, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have joined in the installation of more than 10 kilometres of lights to illuminate the historic façade of St. Paul’s Hospital for the St. Paul’s Foundation’s “Lights of Hope” fundraising campaign.
The 2016 campaign is on track to raise millions of dollars to improve patient care.
“We’re proud to join with the community and bring our skills to this project,” said IBEW Local 213’s Jim Lofty, a volunteer with the Foundation’s 2016 Lights of Hope Committee. “We had up to 25 IBEW members on site this year, including members from as far away as Seattle and Portland.”
The set-up for the Lights of Hope display takes five to six weeks, and includes testing the lights, installing scaffolding and decorative wrap, and two weekend sessions where illuminated stars and 100,000 light bulbs and are hung and connected.
IBEW Local 213 member Chris Van Steinburg has volunteered his time to the installation effort since 2007.
“This is a great opportunity for me to give back to the community, and to meet up with IBEW members and their families,” he said. “I get to see their kids growing up. And I know the support we’re providing to St. Paul’s is making a real difference to the health of thousands of people.”
Van Steinburg has agreed to act as the IBEW representative on the Foundation’s 2017 Lights of Hope committee, and to lead the union’s volunteer installation team.
”As volunteers, we gather together every year, hundreds of hands of craftsmanship in scaffolding and lights and electrical circuitry doing our part to help St. Paul’s extend its own hundreds of hands of care into the community,” said Doug Hamming, architect and volunteer chair of Lights of Hope Committee. “The helping hands spirit of set-up day a reflection of the spirit of Lights of Hope itself.”
Last year, St. Paul’s Lights of Hope campaign raised more than $3.15 million to fund equipment and enhanced patient care programs that would not have been funded otherwise.
The public lighting ceremony for St. Paul’s Lights of Hope is scheduled for 6-8 pm Thursday, November 24 including music, food trucks and -- of course -- the lighting of the display scheduled for just after 6:30 p.m. This is the 19th year for the event.
How to donate to Lights of Hope: www.lightsofhope.com
