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Rotary Club inviting local women to ‘visit’ Paris (a.k.a. Pitt Meadows) for fun and charity

Ladies Night fundraising gala is back in-person, tickets are on sale
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The designer handbag collection is back again this year. (Special to The News)

Rotary Club of Haney is inviting women in the community to an evening in Paris – or maybe it’s the City of Pitt Meadows disguised as France.

This will be the first Ladies Night since 2019 for the local Rotary Club, after it was cancelled for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A big loss for the charitable organization that raises about $20,000 at the event each year, said club member Susan Hayes, explaining that it’s money that goes towards the many necessary programs the club is involved within the community.

“There is great need in the community,” Hayes said. Not only in the business community, that struggled during the past two years with closures during the pandemic, she elaborated, but also children in the community who are struggling without enough food.

For the past few years, Hayes noted, the Rotary Club of Haney, committed $10,000 annually to the daily bagged lunch program at the Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries, which currently serves around 174 children at 13 elementary schools in the community.

The Haney Rotary Club, along with the Meadow Ridge Rotary Club, also contribute to the Starfish Backpack Program, a national program that has been implemented locally that makes sure children in need and their families have food during the weekends throughout the school year.

One backpack a week per family costs about $500 for the year, Hayes noted.

Haney Rotary also supports the North Fraser Therapeutic Riding Association, which provides horse riding sessions for people with developmental challenges. They are also a sponsor of the Rotary Youth Exchange and Youth Engaged in Service, and also give out small grants to community groups.

Local Rotary Clubs are also part of Rotary International’s Polio Plus campaign, added Hayes, supporting immunization campaigns in poorer countries for polio – that is also funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

READ MORE: 120 participants and three bears attend Rotary club of Haney’s charity golf

ALSO: Haney Rotary ups bursary amounts

Ladies Night 2022’s Evening in Paris Gala will feature a casual bistro cafes and a Montmartre-style art and retail market.

Three artists will be taking part: painter April Lacheur; painter Gina Rubin; and jewellery artist Susan Rind – along with one retail vendor, Favorite Finds.

“This is something new. We’ve never had this before. We’ve never had a marketplace component,” said Hayes.

They are also bringing back the designer handbag collection, where they approach local women in business to donate a new or gently-loved handbag, that will, in turn, be sold at the event.

“It was quite successful,” said Hayes of the last designer handbag event in 2019. “We hope to expand that.”

There will also be a live auction., and a DJ will be providing the musical entertainment.

Rotary Club of Haney’s An Evening In Paris will be taking place Wednesday, May 25 at Swaneset Bay Resort and Country Club in Pitt Meadows.

Tickets are $125 each, and available online at: events.eply.com/2022eveninginparis.


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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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