It Really Was Cold Out There…CNOY 2023

It Really Was Cold Out There…

When we agreed to host the Coldest Night of the Year event in North Vancouver, we felt that there was a significant possibility that “Coldest Night” would be a misnomer and potentially quite laughable. After all, who can forget the weather during the 2010 Olympics?!?

Mother Nature reminded us that she is in charge and delivered a blast of Arctic air and some (arguably) lovely white flakes on Saturday, February 25. It did little to deter our contingent of walkers and those signing up on the day of the event almost balanced out those who couldn’t make it due to the storm.

We were thrilled with the results for our inaugural year, as 125 walkers hit the streets and raised over $36,000 for the home we are building in the Baden Park project by Anthem on Mount Seymour Parkway.

Buoyed by the tremendous and early support of our Lead Sponsor Neptune Terminals, we set about making this a night to remember for those who joined us. The team at Neptune was ready to assist in every way and truly saved the day with their abundant supply of tents.

Coldest Night of the Year happened in 200+ North American cities this year, benefitting different charities who are serving those facing housing insecurity, hunger, and hurt. BC Housing sponsored 26 walks across the province with grants totaling $56,000 and we were fortunate to be one of the recipients, resulting in BC Housing becoming our Supporting Sponsor.

Anthem, Three Shores Development and TD Bank Group all joined as Rest Stop sponsors and provided a welcome spot to stop and have a donut (thank you Cream Pony), a coffee (thank you Starbucks), a hot chocolate (thank you Tim Horton’s), or a healthy piece of fruit (thank you Save On Foods)! We are so grateful to the teams at Anthem, Three Shores and TD for keeping our walkers safe, fueled, and hydrated.

Our Route & Community sponsors and other GIK donors also deserve a round of thanks. We sincerely appreciate the last minute save from Louis Gervais Fine Foods & Catering and Staples generously gifted our signage.

Despite the weather, we had a strong contingent of volunteers to help us with set up, run of event and tear down. We simply couldn’t have pulled it off without them and feel so fortunate to have many new and returning volunteers so passionately aligned with our cause. We LOVE our volunteers!

The vibe was bumping thanks to DJ FVDEZ who got the party started, but it wouldn’t have been a success without our intrepid walkers. All of them deserve a MASSIVE thanks for fundraising, donating, and just showing up to walk. Their presence speaks to the compassionate and caring communities on the North Shore and helped our team to bring a greater awareness to HFHGV’s work as we look to build more in this region.

With a 2km and a 5km walk on offer, there truly was something for everyone. It was great to see families with young children and strollers, young adults, and seniors too. There were fitness teams, intergenerational teams, business teams, municipal teams, and provincial teams.

Representatives from the City and District of North Vancouver came out to walk and made amazing contributions to our overall fundraising. In fact, the CNV Council Cruisers comprised of Councilors Angela Girard, Jessica McIlroy and Tony Valente slayed it, coming in as our #1 Team, raising $2,350! They were also #16 out of 56 municipal teams on the National Challenge Board. Way to go Councilors!

Valentina Swierczynski, RBC Branch Manager of the Dollarton Branch built a formidable team of 38 walkers. They brought energy and enthusiasm to spare and ranked #6 in our Fundraising Teams. They also ranked #14 out of 48 RBC teams on the National Challenge Board.

Huge kudos to our Top Individual Fundraiser, Chris Crighton from the Windsor Warriors – a team of bootcamp fitness friends. Chris is our only walker to have earned the golden button by raising more than $1,000. Not only does Chris have bragging rights, but coming in at $1,050, she has made a significant contribution to affordable housing in this community. Chris’ phenomenal fundraising was fueled by the fact that the cause is very close to her heart. “I feel this is so important, as homelessness and the challenges that come with it can happen to anybody. I know this from personal experience with someone who was very close to me. I am excited to make an even bigger difference next year,” she said.

Everyone seemed to appreciate the warm bowl of soup at the end and there were lots of requests for recipes. While I don’t know how Louis Gervais makes his amazing tomato bisque, I am happy to share a recipe (of sorts) for the Butternut Squash Ginger soup.

For a lot of people (divide as required)

Butternut Squash Ginger Soup

8 butternut squashes, halved and seeds cleaned out

16 or more sprigs rosemary

5 sweet potatoes sliced in ½” rounds

3 large white onions

1 large purple onion

2-3 heads of garlic

5 or 6 1” sections of ginger, not grated

1 tetra pack vegetable stock

Water as needed to help puree vegetables

Roast all vegetables in 375 degree oven until soft. Put squash flat side down on top of rosemary sprigs on parchment paper to roast.

After roasting, peel and blend /puree all vegetables using a combination of water and veggie stock to help with process. Heat in a large pot with coconut cream (4 cans), curry powder, nutmeg, salt, pepper, cinnamon.

All to taste…I have no idea of measurements, but you will do great!

I recently made a more modest pot (maybe 8 servings) and used 2 squash, 1 giant sweet potato, 1 onion., 1 can coconut cream. Happy cooking. J

Did you miss out on this year’s event or did you not hit your fundraising goal? Donations are gratefully accepted until MARCH 31. Go to www.cnoy.org/donate and select your walker/team to support or choose our official team, Habitat Hop Step and Jumpers – help us reach $40k!!! #EveryDollarCounts #HelpBuildHomes

Save the Date

We’re also pretty confident we’ll be back to do it again next year and would LOVE to see you February 24, 2024.

Have Any Photos to Share from CNOY 2023? Please send them our way to lduke@habitatgv.ca or share them with the team at www.cnoy.org

You may just see your image promoting next year’s event.