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News

Latest Garage Sale Success

Thank you to everyone who came to our big garage sale, braving the rain on day 1 and/or popping in on the spontaneous day 2 — you helped us raise over $3,000 in sales, food sales, and donations!

We are ever so thankful to the many who donated items, those who made food, and everyone who came out to volunteer.

We’d like to give a special shout out to our many kind neighbours for going above and beyond – you donated, purchased, hosted your own sales, and several of you heroically offered canopies to enable the sale to go on despite the rainstorm!!!

We had a grand time, and we think everyone who came by did too!

Categories
Fundraising events

Music Bingo

The Gordon Head Refugee Sponsorship Group is hosting a music bingo on Wednesday Oct 9, 2024, 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM at the Fernwood Inn, to raise funds for the support of a newcomer family of five.

Music bingo is a fun and exciting take on the classic game of bingo, with songs replacing the numbers on a bingo card. The host will play music, and if you have that song listed on your card, you tick it off. The same rules apply as regular bingo – get a line, call BINGO! and win a great prize.

Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for each of the two rounds of bingo. Winners will select their preferred prize.

Lots of great prizes!

Your $30 entry ticket gives you one bingo card for each round of bingo. Bring cash – extra cards will be available for $3 each; 2 for $5.

Doors open at 7:00 and the bingo fun begins at 7:30. Reservations are recommended if you decide to come earlier than that to enjoy dinner and drinks before the games begin (250-412-2001). Just let Fernwood Inn know that you are joining the Music Bingo event, so that you are seated in the appropriate area.

Buy your tickets here!

Categories
Fundraising events

Great Gherkins Garage Sale Fundraiser EXTENDED

Saturday, August 24th 9am – 12pm &
BONUS Sunday, August 25 from noon – 3pm

1553 & 1557 Granada Crescent

Find us here: https://goo.gl/maps/nq8ozwMpwGbqmzsQ8

Mark your calendars for the best garage sale of the summer: our neighbourhood garage sale supporting the Gherkins, aka the Gordon Head Refugee Sponsorship Community Group (GHRSCG) – all
proceeds to be used to bring a refugee family to Victoria.

Saturday August 24th, 9 am to noon(ish) at 1553 and 1557 Granada Crescent AND we added Sunday August 25, from noon to 3pm.

We will be rounding up wonderful items of all kinds from our supporters – kitchen gadgets, books, board games, and MORE!

PLUS by popular demand we will be offering delicious Syrian snacks (Saturday only)!

Mugs galore
beautiful boxed set of chopsticks
wooden salad bowl with silver salad service
jewelry box (and jewelry)
we’ve got purses
Christmas is early
old school light meter
madeleine pan
Who doesn’t love this blazer?
lots of clothes – silk, sequins, stylin!
garden tools, wine racks, and wine glasses too
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Uncategorized

T-shirts and totes are back!

New colour, long sleeve shirts, new bag design in time for holiday gifting

Our t-shirt and tote sale is back!
This t shirt and tote design shows the heart of BC, caring for ourselves and extending that to others.  Written in English, Lekwungen, French,  Chinese and Arabic.  We believe the shirt reflects our strong belief in the value and importance of care and compassion for our fellow humans. 

The Gherkins mission is to enable newcomer families to feel wanted and appreciated, to become Canadian, connected with, contributing to, and thriving in the local community; and to live an independent, fulfilling, and comfortable life.  

The sales of these totes and tshirts are a fundraiser for the Gordon Head Refugee Sponsorship Constituency Group (the Gherkins) in Victoria BC.  We are currently supporting a family group of 8 from Syria who began their new lives in Victoria in the Spring.  The kids are in school, the adults are all getting English language instruction and some have entered the workforce. This is great progress towards independent and full lives in Canada.

When Syrian refugees come to Canada they must repay to the Federal Government the cost of their travel to get here.  We believe they will have a better start to a safe and secure life if they do not begin it with a large debt.  To help them, we are fundraising to offset some or all of the $15-$20,000 debt these 8 people will be required to repay.

This striking design has been generously developed and donated to us by Noah Crowder. To see more of Noah’s work please go to his website: noahcrowderdesigns.com

Visit our shopify store here: https://gherkins-care.myshopify.com/

Categories
News

Garage Sale success

Thank you to everyone who came to our big garage sale — we raised $2,600 in sales, food sales, and donations.
We are especially thankful to the many who donated items, those who made food, the neighbours who hosted a sale at the same time to boost the event, and everyone who came out to volunteer.
We had a blast, and we think everyone who came by had a great time too!

Categories
Fundraising events News

Giant Garage Sale fundraiser Aug 27

Come one, come all to our neighbourhood garage sale supporting the Gordon Head Refugee Sponsorship group.

Saturday Aug 27 from 9 am to noon(ish)

at 1553 and 1557 Granada Crescent … plus 5 other houses on Granada Crescent!

Find us here: https://goo.gl/maps/nq8ozwMpwGbqmzsQ8

We have kitchen items, books, gadgets, sports items, and so many awesome board games and MORE. PLUS sweet and savory snacks for sale! All proceeds at 1553 and 1557 Granada sale go to refugee sponsorship.

The fundraiser sale is joined by **five additional houses** on Granada Cr who are holding sales at the same time to help us make this a high traffic event!

Check out the photos below… this is just a taste of what we have on sale!

Categories
Fundraising events News

Fundraiser: garage sale August 27

The Gordon Head Refugee Sponsorship Constituent Group (“the Gherkins”) are planning a garage sale! We hope to see you at the sale on August 27th (9am to noon) at 1553 and 1557 Granada Crescent for some great bargains. Last time we held a garage sale (2019) we raised $2,000 for refugee sponsorship.

We are ready for another fun day of fantastic deals, treasure hunting, and chatting with neighbours and friends. Not only that… our popular snack sale will also return! Savories and sweets, including some Syrian treats, will be on sale for shoppers to enjoy.

Do you have items you would like to donate to the sale?

Bring us your small appliances, puzzles and games, kitchen items, toys, tchotchkes, and other items. Perhaps they no longer bring you joy. Perhaps one batch of homemade pasta was enough. It is time for them to bring someone else joy (and pasta), and by passing them along you will also support a refugee family settle in our community.

Drop off your donations on August 13, 14, 17, 18, and 19, from 1 – 3 pm, at 1557 Granada Crescent (Eulala’s place) 

We will donate unsold items to charity.

Categories
News

The family has arrived

The Gordon Head Refugee Sponsorship Group is thrilled to announce that our sponsored families have arrived and moved into their new homes.

In late February we received word we should prepare for arrival and in March we received news the families would be flying to Canada in April. This sparked a flurry of preparations for their arrival. Like anyone moving to Victoria, finding housing was our biggest challenge. But we are happy to say that after some stops and starts, the families are settled into their homes. The children had their first taste of school and everyone is starting to learn English.

We had many donations of furniture and kitchen wares from our community of supporters, and were able to provide all the needed furnishings, as well as bicycles for the kids, school supplies, and a laptop for each family.

We are especially grateful for the very generous donation of free dental services from Dr. Prevost, Megson Fitzpatrick for providing two years’ tenant insurance, gardening supplies from Gardenworks, as well as a donation from Megan’s Hairstyling. Science Venture not only donated summer camp spots for each of the four children, their staff made a special effort to welcome and include their participation as they navigated a new town, new games, new friends in an unfamiliar language.

Categories
Fundraising events News

Fundraiser turns spring cleaning into cash

Garbage may not be the most glamorous topic, but on April 22-24, the Gherkins turned trash into treasure with our Spring Fling in the Bin fundraiser.

Supporters were invited to purchase tickets for each garbage bag (or equivalent sized item) they deposited in our big bin. We sold out 170 tickets and raised $1600. (As a bonus several of us were inspired to do our spring cleaning!)

This fundraiser was made more successful due to our supportive bin supplier… so a big shout out to Bin There Done That Victoria! Not only did they waive fees, they delivered the bin and advised us on how to manage the event for success.

Categories
Fundraising events News

Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe… in 5 languages

Join the Gherkins in learning to say Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe in English, Lekwungen, Chinese, French, and Arabic!

100% of proceeds from this fundraiser go to our next sponsorship our three related refugee families from Syria/

Don’t forget to support the fundraiser: buy a shirt or tote!

BUY A SHIRT

Thanks Victoria and Joni for your work editing this beautiful video!

Shout out to the translators who made sure the tshirts are correct: Joe Seward (Lekwungen), Marie Chemel-Lefebvre (French), Montaser Aljundy (Arabic), Rachel Yuen and Linda Yang (Chinese).

T-shirt design 100% donated by the lovely and talented Noah Crowder Designs

Tshirts are locally printed in Victoria with printing and promotional materials generously supported by MegaScreen productions and Island Blue Print

Shirt sizing details are found here.