In late September our Park Royal location rallied around Vanessa Hutton, resident server, in her mission to raise money for the BC Breast Cancer Organization.
Says Vanessa, “someone extremely close to me was diagnosed, and I wanted to be proactive about it. I wanted to start small, so I created a team for Run for the Cure.”
With the help of her Park Royal family, namely manager Gillian Bowles, Vanessa was able to host a fundraiser at her location (view the gallery of the fundraiser), featuring live music by Stephanie Walker (another Cactus partner) and a delicious cake donated by chef Marita Budge. Regular patrons and friends alike enjoyed complimentary wine and passed appetizers, while casting bids on silent auction items from the likes of Landmark Wines, Coast Hotel, Village Taphouse and Rogers Chocolate.
“It was a truly magical night,” Vanessa muses, “and raising over $5,000 is something that we should all be proud of.”
On an early morning in October, donations in hand, Vanessa’s team of Cactus servers, hosts and family members ran alongside 170,000 others in a race for the cure in their bright pink Cactus Club t-shirts (view the gallery of the race).
“This was an experience I will never forget,” she says. “I really appreciate my Cactus family; none of this would have been possible without them!”