The wildly successful charity fundraiser The Bucket List Gala is set to return with Netflix star and best selling author Leon Logothetis from The Kindness Diaries as it’s keynote speaker this September.
The ambitious event was developed by the Prince George Hospice Society last year with the help of UNLTD Media and Events and saw great success in its first year raising more than $30,000. Beyond the financial win for the charity, the gala also kickstarted an initiative to activate the community to live life with purpose by making bucket lists of their own.
“At hospice, we regularly see and hear the conversations of ‘I wish I would have,’ ‘I should have taken the time to,’ ‘I really wanted to but now it’s too late…'” said Donna Flood, executive director of the Prince George Hospice. “We want to take our experiences and help others in the community live their lives to the fullest by creating a Bucket List and accomplishing the items on it.”
September 22 at the Prince George Civic Centre, the Prince George Hospice Society & UNLTD will be joined by returning sponsors Wood Wheaton Supercentre, Accent Dental and Pacific Western Brewing with the aim of expanding the success of the event. This year’s choice of Leon Logothetis with his message of choosing your own life and spreading kindness was a natural next step to build on the energy of the event’s inaugural year which featured keynote speaker Ben Nemtin of MTV’s The Buried Life.
“It is profound to be a part of an event with this much meaning,” said Norm Coyne, owner UNLTD Media & Events, and event manager. “The Bucket List gala is an opportunity to be part of a movement to live the life you choose plus raises money for a great cause. What could possibly be better than that?”
The event and it’s corresponding initiative were chronicled on the Facebook group Bucket List PG. Weekly prize giveaways of bucket list fulfillments were also announced on this group with the hashtag #bucketlistpg. Presenting sponsor Wood Wheaton Supercentre have also launched a “Random Acts of Kindness” program through the dealership to coincide with this year’s gala and spread the culture of goodwill in the spirit of “The Kindness Diaries”. Each ticket to the gala includes weekly chances to win fulfillments of varying degrees Each ticket purchases will be accompanied by a form to allow attendees to share the bucket list goals they hope to win.
Bucket List goals are broken down into three separate scales listed below.
A – The Highest Level (The Loftiest of Dreams). Last year’s winner chose a trip to St. Lucia.
B- The Middle Level (Difficult, but not out of reach). Some of last year’s winners received skydiving, white water rafting, and a helicopter ride around Prince George.
C – The Lowest Level (In reach, only requiring a little push). Some of last year’s winners received language lessons, fitness training, and decluttering service.
Each ticket will require the purchaser to fill out their A, B, and C goals, which are collected by the Prince George Hospice Society. Once a week starting on June 29/2018 the society will draw one ticket and fulfill a B- or C-list goal for that ticket holder. At the Gala event in September, the society will draw an ‘A’ list winner and either fulfill that list item or provide $5,000 in cash towards it’s fulfillment. Last year, presenting sponsor Wood Wheaton Supercentre surprised the audience with an additional ‘A’ level bucket list giveaway of a trip to Disneyland for Dirk Finger and his family after hearing about Dirk’s battle with cancer.
Tickets for the Bucket List Gala are $85 each plus service charges or tables of 10 for $750 plus service charges and will be available for sale on June 22/18 at the Central Interior Tickets office and online at http://www.centralinteriortickets.com
