Vancouver Island
On December 7, families from Vancouver Island’s Heart Beats group enjoyed a festive pancake breakfast (with bacon and all sorts of yummy treats) at The Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa in Victoria. We had 22 families who filled a banquet room and enjoyed the buffet, crafts, cookie decorating, a magic show, and best of all, a special visit with Santa. There were many great moments. Children played. There was gorgeous crafting, laughs with the magician, and plenty of smiles and excitement with Santa. Heart moms and dads were able to connect over coffee.
Many thanks to all the volunteers that helped to make it so special! Our Victoria cardiology staff joined in too, greeting everyone and supporting the craft and cookie tables. In addition, a huge thank you goes out to Leeann, who took fabulous Santa photos for all of our families. Local magician Donald Dunphy captured the kids’ attention. There were many giggles, from both parents and children! The highlight came when Santa arrived with a sack full of chocolate!
The families on Vancouver Island look forward to connecting again in the spring. Hopefully, there will be an Easter egg hunt in early April.
Lower Mainland
This year’s event was such a fun, festive day! We had over 250 heart family members join us at the Grand Villa Casino Hotel & Conference Centre in Burnaby to celebrate the holidays. The decorations were gorgeous, and The Great Gordini put on a very entertaining magic show. Families got dressed up, enjoyed a fabulous brunch, and then took part in face painting, making balloon animals, Christmas crafts, and cookie decorating. They also had fun checking out the dozens of raffle prizes. The little ones were thrilled with the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Claus. There were many big smiles for our photographer, Liz.
We would like to thank the following sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible:
- Fratelli Bakery
- Daniel Le Chocolat Belge
- Liz Ciulla Photography
- All the families and businesses that donated to the raffle ♥
“CHN Celebrates the Holidays!” is from our winter 2020 newsletter, Heart Matters. See our Newsletters page for more stories and to subscribe.