The wildly successful charity fundraiser The Bucket List Gala is set to return with best selling author and TV host Robin Esrock as its keynote speaker this September.
Best known as the author of The Great Canadian Bucket List: One-of-a-Kind Travel Experiences, Esrock has written several other bucket list themed books as well as hosted a series on the National Geographic channel called World Travels.
The annual gala was developed by the Prince George Hospice Society in 2017 with the help of UNLTD Media and Events and has raised nearly $100,000 since its start. Beyond the financial benefit to 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 – Prince George Hospice Society. “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.”
This September 21 at the Prince George Civic Centre, the Prince George Hospice Society & UNLTD will be joined by presenting sponsor Wood Wheaton Supercentre with the aim of expanding the success of the event even further. This year’s choice of Robin Esrock seeks to once again capture the spirit of living your best life by pursuing goals daily, monthly, and yearly wherever and whatever they may be.
“The Bucket List Gala is a highlight of my year personally,” said Norm Coyne, Owner, UNLTD Media & Events, and Event Manager. “What could possibly be better than being a part of inspiring people to live their best life?”
The event and its 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.
Each ticket to the gala includes weekly chances to win fulfillments of varying degrees Each ticket purchased 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). Past year’s winners have been a trip to St. Lucia and a family trip to Disneyland
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 August 5/2019 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 $5000 in cash towards it’s fulfillment. In 2017, 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 $90 each plus service charges or tables of 10 for $900 plus service charges and will be available for sale on August 1/2019 exclusively online at www.eventbrite.com
To learn more about how you can get involved with the Bucket List Gala, call Norm at 250 640-6670 or email him at normcoyne@unltd.me