Gabriola Island Lifestyle Blog

Archive for the ‘Causes’ Category

Helping Hands

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

On June 9th Robert of Robert’s Place will be donating food and time to cook up a lunch as a fundraiser for People for a Healthy Community!  The cost of lunch will be by donation and all the funds raised will be donated to PHC.  PHC recently got word that the Gaming Commission grant money they have come to depend on will be 4 1/2  months later than expected.  The above is one of the fundraisers that will be going on over the next few months to help carry them through until the next available money is released.  Please come and enjoy a lunch knowing that the money will be going to a good cause, helping to feed people in our community through the Food Bank and Soup Socials.

Shake Your Can…Literally!

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

On Saturday May 1st between 1 and 3pm in Folklife Village on Gabriola Pat Maloney, Kerry Sorrenti and myself, will be shaking our can for money!  Well the PHC (people for a healthy community) garbage can to be exact:)  This is part of the Shake Your Can Drive put on by the Gabriola Arts Council on Saturday to help raise money for many of the Charity/Non-Profit organizations on Gabriola.  Swing through the village on Saturday and toss your spare change into a good cause of your choice!

Shake Your Can!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

I am a board member at People for a Healthy Community (PHC) and we have entered an artistic garbage can, designed by Gabriola’s very own Jeff Molloy, in the Art Councils “Shake your Can” event.  Done with the encaustic method and utilizing Jeff’s common crow theme this is a fabulous one of a kind piece of art. Drop by Artworks for the Trashformation opening on April 22 at 7 pm to see our can and if you like it – please toss in your change (or large unmarked bills) as a donation to PHC.  If you really like it, come to the Mother’s Day brunch and auction at the  Surf Lodge on May 9 and buy the can, with proceeds from the can and auction of said can going to PHC!  It will be a fantastic fundraiser for many groups on Gabriola and imagine how great they will look in your yard:)

posted by Carly McMahon

What a year!

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009



Well the year is winding down and it is time to look back and remember all the days sunny or rainy, happy or sad. The girls are another year older and our oldest will be registered for Kindergarten in the coming months. The younger will be starting pre-school this year and so begins the yearly adventure of another grade, another teacher and so much to learn for both them and us. We added a new member to our family by finally getting a dog! Dexter is a 5 month old Bichon and is greatly loved by all, especially the girls. This year also came with the addition of 15 chickens of which 12 are still around and kicking, 2 of the 3 roosters became dinner this past summer and were quite tasty. Our garden was fantastic with beautiful tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and beans, we are still eating greens, herbs and squash that we grew this year. Hopefully we will expand the garden next year and try growing new things such as some ancient grains.

I joined the board at People for a Healthy Community and look forward to working with the other amazing board members to give back something to the community that made me who I am today. Dave’s business has taken off and Sleepdeprived Computer Tech’s have helped keep many people’s computers running smoothly. He also has spent a fair amount of his time volunteering with the Gabriola Co-op Radio. Through all of this we still manage sometime for each other and the kids and have really enjoyed the past year watching them grow while laughing at all the goofy things they say and do.

We always tried to keep Real Estate out of this blog but I am breaking the rules just for a moment. Business was slow in the beginning of the year but then took off at an incredible speed, so much for the “Quiet Year” perhaps that is still to come. Okay so know that the rule has been broken I will endeavor never to do it again and keep this an island lifestyle blog.

Thanks so much to all who have made this such a great year we really appreciate all your support.

The McMahon’s/Vincent’s/Wishinski’s

We Did It!!

Thursday, December 17th, 2009


Congratulations Gabriola, we did it. After making it to the semi-finals for the Aviva Community Fund we have moved on to the finals for Gabriola’s Emergency Care Facility. The 25 favourite ideas are currently being reviewed by the competition judges. The competition winners will be announced January 25th, 2010. So with our fingers crossed and thinking good thoughts we enter into the holiday season with our hopes set on the biggest gift of all come the end of January. What a fantastic group of people to set this motion and thanks to everybody who reminded and reminded and reminded us to vote everyday, you are very dedicated. Everybody deserves this toast, “Here’s to a fabulous community that extends far beyond our backyard, Thank-you”!