Like many, a Maple Ridge man and his daughter start their holiday season hanging Christmas lights.
But these are not just any Christmas lights.
For 25 years now, Stephen Kelly has been a volunteer with the Lights of Hope campaign at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
Since 1998, Lights of Hope has been and continues to be the biggest fundraising campaign for St. Paul’s Hospital.
To date, more than $50 million in donations have poured into the hospital, going to the care of hundreds of thousands of patients from across the province.
Last year the campaign raised $3.6 million, money that went to urgently needed hospital and long-term programs, and 7,000 health-care workers in Providence Health Care.
For Kelly, it’s about giving thanks to the hospital.
“It’s also a way for me to give back,” said the electrician with the Vancouver School Board, with IBEW Local 213 Electrical Union, and who first started volunteering his services with the campaign through a contractor he was working for.
He volunteered, he said, because he had a friend who was living on the streets with substance abuse issues who became sick and went to St. Paul’s.
And, he said, they helped him and looked past the stigma of his addiction.
“As with a lot of other care providers, they don’t look at that stigma, they look beyond it and they give the people the help that they need regardless of what brought that person to them,” he said.
Kelly estimates he was one of 60 to 80 volunteers, from carpenters to electricians and operators of high-reach equipment, who helped set up the lights this year starting in late October.
His 23-year-old daughter, Heather Kelly, has also been helping out for the past 12 years.
The volunteers first set up the scaffolding, before hanging netting on it and then finally the lights and stars.
For Kelly, the Christmas season really starts when he returns to St. Paul’s every year to put up the lights.
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“Going back to St. Paul’s Hospital every year is like seeing friends or family who you haven’t seen all year,” he said, comparing the work to a social gathering more than anything.
And, he said, he believes his daughter’s exposure to the work that St. Paul’s does has put her on her current career path, as she is a first-year medical student at the University of British Columbia.
Kelly said he has always volunteered, especially for a good cause.
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“It’s a real memorable way for me to start my Christmas experience for the year,” he said of the St. Paul’s Hospital Lights of Hope.
There are different recognition levels for donations including a platinum star, gold, bronze, and a partner that is a shared star in the archway.
This year the goal is $3.6 million.
The lights will be up outside the hospital until Friday, Jan. 5, at 1081 Burrard St., in Vancouver.