It is very easy to get caught up in our busy schedules especially this time of year, today I had the great opportunity to once again see the St. George’s School Hamper Drive machine in full swing.  I was introduced to the Hamper Drive program when my nephews both attended St. George’s School.

St. George’s School is now the second largest provider of Christmas Hampers in the Metro Vancouver area.   For 30 years, this amazing program has been in action.

A typical Hamper contains enough non-perishable food to last two weeks: bread, fresh produce, dairy products, a frozen turkey and a frozen salmon, toiletry items, generic clothing items such as socks, a gift for each family member, and a toy for each child.

You have to see it to believe it, a true community effort – hundreds of volunteers and support from all aspects of the community.

I am delighted that PRP was able to support the Hamper Drive again this year and I congratulate them on once again bringing some Christmas cheer to over 300 families.

I am looking forward to spending some time with my family during this holiday time and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from PRP.

St. George’s School

Well we finally made it home for the holidays. The biggest storm in 30 years in Las Vegas. One of the highlights of the trip was enjoying the new Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo. They still deliver!

The snow is coming down hard on the runway of the Las Vegas airport.  Crazy weather.  Our flight is cancelled and Nik, Rob and I are stranded in Sin City.  There are worse places to be stranded.  Back to the buffet and the roulette table.

Happy travelling - and Merry Christmas.

Patrick

Well, we found some snow…in Las Vegas. Patrick, Rob and I are down here for a few days of meetings and to our surprise it snowed yesterday. Although it did not stick on the strip. Weather reports show that it may snow again tomorrow. Hopefully, we have no issue with our return flight. When the three of us travel together, we seem to often have travel difficulties.

The PRP team recently spent some time in Whistler. Optimistically, Ruth brought along her snowboard. Alas, she was probably two weeks early.

It was a quick flight back from Seattle and then straight to the stage of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Once again, we were involved with the Vancouver Opera Season Opening Overture Gala. I spent five great years with the company and I always enjoy going back to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and working with my friends at the Opera. It’s nice to see the renovations to the Theatre are getting close to completion. Once the new seats come in next year, it will almost be like a new venue.

I am working hard here in Seattle at the PASS Community Summit. I am also having fun in the process here with their new branding this year. It is a rock theme so I have been having fun with 80’s rock music. I have actually been singing “Journey” almost every day since we have arrived.

If I am singing these tunes, props were a must.  Do you like my shades?

Today, Heather and I road tripped down to Seattle to join Nik at the Washington State Convention & Trade Centre for PASS 2008.  This will be PRP’s second year production managing the Annual Summit.

Of course, no PRP trip would be complete without taking in at least one sporting event, so tonight we ventured out to Husky Stadium to watch the University of Washington take on the UCLA Bruins.  We were confident our support would give the Huskies the boost they needed to break their 0-9 record, but it was not so…as they lost, much to the chagrin of their diehard fans.  Oh well, there’s always next time…

In the meantime, “don’t stop believing.”

Today, a select few members of the Boo! crew celebrated their 50th show. In four years, the show has been performed in 11 cities throughout British Columbia. Lacy Adam, Nicole LaPlaca, Cierra Martin, Heather Morrision, Tammy Sanderson, Rob Sondergaard, Ashley Sweett and I have been there through all the adventures to “save Halloween”. It’s been great this year as we hit the road to see familiar local crew, junior dancers and audience members throughout the province.

Today we helped Karyo Edelman with a Vancouver 2010 Olympic announcement for Petro Canada. Petro Canada will pay for two immediate family members of every 2010 Canadian Olympian to attend the games. To demonstrate the impact this has on athletes, we had Olympic speed skating medalist, Kristina Groves, do timed laps in an empty arena as well as much quicker times as she was cheered on by family and friends. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with some of Canada’s top female speed skaters. We had Catrina Lemay Doan host the Vancouver 2010 Emblem launch. I shared some time with Cindy Klassen in Torino as she was carrying the flag for Canada at the Closing Ceremonies and now it was fabulous to be on the ice with Kristina Groves.