twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

Last night over 200 people gathered 30-stories above downtown Vancouver for food, wine, activities, prizes, and most importantly - to support Beauty Night Society.

While the organizing team is getting some much-deserved rest, I just wanted to put up a quick post with some photos from last night.

Thanks to Jeremy Lim Photography, Smart Pics Photobooth, and Three Sixty Photo's photobooth for their contributions as well as the many attendees who took photos throughout the night.

View all photos tagged #yvrtwestival on Flickr.

It just so happens that on the same night that over 150 cities around the world are hosting events for local causes, there's another very worthy charity-driven event happening in Vancouver.

For the second year, Vancouver's Twestival event takes place on the same day as Dining Out For Life -- a city-wide campaign to raise funds and support for people living with HIV/AIDS through Loving Spoonful and Friends For Life.

Over 230 restaurants will be donating 25% of their sales on March 24th to these two very worthy causes. We would like to encourage Vancouverites to have lunch, an early dinner, or a late dinner at one of these establishments.

Within the vicinity of our venue there is:

Gotham Steakhouse & Cocktail Bar

Diva at the Met 

The Mill Marine Bistro 

Prestons - Pender at the Coast Hotel

Showcase Restaurant  at the Marriott

Wild Rice 

... and over a dozen more listed for downtown alone. If you're dining out on Thursday, March24th, please do so at one of these participating restaurants. We then look forward to seeing you at Twestival from 6:00pm - 8:30pm.

The following email has been sent to all attendees with important "night of" information:

Good afternoon and thank you for registering for Vancouver's 4th Twestival. Tomorrow we will be gathering to support Beauty Night Society, an amazing non-profit organization that you will be able to learn all about at the event. Here are a few key items to note for tomorrow and a preview of what to expect on-site. 

HASHTAG
Please use @YVRTwestival or #YVRTwestival for event updates on Twitter. 

REGISTRATION
When you arrive at Harbour Centre (555 West Hastings) head downstairs to the elevator area for the Vancouver Lookout. The registration tables will be there and volunteers will check you in. You will receive a name tag that *must be worn* in order to gain entry to the elevator, and Twestival upstairs. 

UPSTAIRS - MAIN VENUE
Once upstairs, find your way around the 360 degree space and check out our photobooths, sponsor booths, the silent auction table, and most importantly visit Beauty Night to find out more about their organization. Mayor Gregor Robertson will be addressing the crowd at 6:45pm followed by an introduction to Beauty Night by its founder, Caroline Macgilivary. 

REFRESHMENTS

We are overwhelemed by the response to Twestival this year and can't believe we sold out so quickly. 

While all 200 tickets are gone (and none will be available at the door) here's how you can still support Vancouver's Twestival campaign.

• On March 24th watch Twitter for updates including the #YVRTwestival tag. Re-tweet, pass along pics, and help us spread the word about our cause, @BeautyNight
• Purchase a donation in increments of $10 from our ticketing page. All funds from the ticketing system go directly to Beauty Night.
• Continue to support Beauty Night throughout the year by following them on Twitter, attending events, and reading up on their cause.

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all sponsors (who are listed on the sidebar) in particular Webnames.ca, Roaming Dragon, Socialized, ING Direct, Lonsdale Event Rentals, London Drugs, and our venue the Vancouver Lookout. Without the help of these sponsors, Twestival would not be possible. 100% of all ticket sales, raffle and silent auction proceeds go directly to Beauty Night and do not help cover our event costs.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

 To get a better understanding of Beauty Night, Vancouver Twestival's cause this year, we asked founder Carolne MacGillivary to write us a guest post. She's so passionate about her cause that I'm sure it was a tough job to summerize her team's efforts in a blog post but she's done a fantastic job....

On behalf of Beauty Night Society, I want to say we are honoured and thrilled to be the YVR Twestival 2011 charity.

What is Beauty Night?

Beauty Night is an award-winning, volunteer-run,  registered Canadian charity that builds self esteem and changes lives of women and youth living in poverty through three streams of programs: wellness, life skills development and makeovers. Through this we give life-makeovers.

Who do you serve?

1/3 seniors

1/3 mothers & children

1/3 street youth & survival sex workers.

Homelessness, hunger, mental ill health and debilitating illnesses are some of the reasons our participants connect with us. 1 in 3 women have experienced sexual violence before the age of 18 year old. We find the numbers to be higher with our participants.

Why Beauty Night?

If people do not believe change is possible, change will not happen. We welcome our participants as they are. They come in, make friends, access services, and many become leaders in their community.

When we ask women living in Vancouver’s DTES what assistance they want, they tell us they want to be treated with dignity and respect. Beauty Night because dignity is beautiful.

I understand the need for wellness and life-skill development – why makeover?

Human contact is vital to human beings. Babies who are not touched will die. 90% of women in correctional facilities have deal with sexual abuse before the age of 18 year of age. The makeover is a great opportunity to reintroduce healthy touch in a non-threatening way and build relationships based on trust with the participants. Through the makeover program and life skill development we are able to connect our participants with resources to help them move forward in their life.

Is it just once a year?

We offer our programming 3-4 days per week. Thanks to our partnership with PHS Life Skills Centre, we offer programming twice a week at 412 East Cordova. 1-2 times per week, we visit our community partners and offer our services at their facilities. Our community partners help with hunger, homelessness and/or health care. We work together to connect participants with resources that can help them change their lives.

How successful have you been?

In 10 years we have given over 11 000 life- makeovers thanks to over 400 volunteers.

Participants labeled “transient” participate on a weekly basis.  Many of our participants have become volunteers. Through accessing our life-makeover program, many develop the confidence to reconnect with friends, family and community. We have been able to redirect our participants to volunteer opportunities and employment opportunities with our community partners.

* Through our volunteer training program, we have had health care and beauty industry professionals tell us that the training they receive through Beauty Night helps them develop better bedside manner for health care and for customer service.

Donate/ Spread the Word/Volunteer/ Raise Money

Thanks to YVR Twestival 2011 we are hoping to raise money to hold 50 nights of life-makeover program.  The more money raised, the more we can change the lives of more participants. This being the first year of baby boomers retiring we believe we will see more seniors accessing our services.

Our annual operating budget is $280 000. Thanks to sponsorship and volunteer support, we are able to keep our staff costs less than $26 000 for 1.5 full time staff including me

We are hoping to raise more money so we can reach more participants and impact their lives in a positive way. To move forward to meet the growing need, we wish to have the resources to serve more participants.

Donations for Beauty NIght can be made via the Twestival ticketing page. Just click on a number of "tickets" and this will provide a donation. Add as many "tickets" as you like to increase your donation amount.