PUSHING ON: The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival celebrates its 11th year of bringing out-of-the-box works to the city. The festival, which runs until Feb. 8, began as a fledgling initiative between Touchstone and Rumble Theatre to bring innovative works to Vanhattan and has grown to become one of the city’s premiere arts celebrations. A recognized broker of international partnerships, a meeting-place for creative minds, a showcase of Canada’s best and an incubator of brilliant new work, the festival, led by founding artistic director Norman Armour, embarks on a second decade with a new home and bolder attitude. Their headquarters, which shares space with three other arts organizations at the CBC studios on Hamilton Street, is a game-changer declared Armour. Brokered by the city of Vancouver, PuSh will share rehearsal space, administrative offices and public resources with DOXA, Music on Main and Touchstone Theatre.
MULTIPLYING POTENTIAL: Believing everyone can master math, playwright, author and mathematician John Mighton designed Jump Math, a numeracy program dedicated to enhancing student and educators potential of understanding and loving math. His efforts have led to accelerated success amongst those employing the Jump Math program. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation even charged Mighton to develop a tablet version of his program. Hoping to see the program available in more Canadian classrooms, Mighton founded Jump Math as a charity in 2001. Mighton was the keynote at a benefit held at Patti and Sam Gudewill’s Kitsilano home. The math mash-up added up $40,000 to support outreach efforts and resource materials for teachers and students. Jump Math is currently used by 10 per cent of B.C. students in Grades 1 to 8 and 130,000 students across Canada.
CHILD CARE: For the past 20 years, members of the Chinese-Canadian community have come together to take part in the For Children We Care gala in support of B.C. Children’s Hospital. Marking two decades of caring, nearly 800 guests filed into the Convention Centre for an evening of fine dining and fundraising in support of priority equipment needs. A major gift of $50,000 from realtor Patsy Hui got the party started. Other donations followed contributing to an impressive $600,000 generated to support the purchase of two new ultrasound machines. Among the attendees were party founders David Choi, Irene and Patrick Wang and past gala chairs Shirley Gaw, Sylvia Chen and Peter and Nancy Chieng.
