HAPPY CANADA DAY
Downtown Coquitlam Toastmasters celebrated cultural diversity on Canada Day, asking club members to give a short speech in their first language. Talks were delivered in Russian, Tagalog, Arabic, Mandarin, Croatian and Farsi.
COAST TO COTS
Staff at the Coast Capital Savings branch on Johnson Street in Coquitlam gave the Children of the Street Society $12,000 for its Youth Art Engagement Project, which works with small groups of high-risk youth in the Tri-Cities.
TB HELP
The TB Vets Charitable Foundation helped to buy a special ventilator for Royal Columbian Hospital, which serves the Tri-Cities. Its $45,000 grant will assist hundreds of post-cardiac surgery patients.
WALTON CHALLENGE
A group of Grade 1 students from Walton elementary met their challenge and raised $1,329 for the BC SPCA education and adoption centre in Coquitlam. Their funds came in via ice cream and freezie sales.
A CUT ABOVE
Coquitlam’s Adam Blaszkowski won the 2018 Top Choice Award for best jewelry retailer in Metro Vancouver. His business, Luksus Diamonds Inc., located on West Hastings Street in Vancouver, took the prize from the 2018 Top Choice Awards Survey.
TRES BIEN!
The Maillardville Residents’ Association awarded its 2018 student bursary to Ian Victoria this month. The accolade is worth $500 and will be used for his career in pharmacy.
NEW ROLE
Lawyer Roch Ripley is the new chairperson for the Coquitlam Foundation, a philanthropic group that manages $3.2 million in 30 foundation-directed and donor-advised funds. He replaces Colleen Talbot, who had been serving as interim chair since February following the resignation of Jason Leo Carvalho. Ripley and his family have lived in Coquitlam since 2011. Meanwhile, applications to take a seat on the foundation’s board close July 15. Visit coquitlamfoundation.com.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Longtime Port Coquitlam resident Marie Coulter marks her 100th year on July 19. The Rochdale, Lancashire-born Coulter emigrated from Ireland with her husband — who served in the Royal Navy — and three young children in 1956. Over the years, she worked at the Wilson Centre doctors’ office as a secretary at PoCo elementary schools. She has also been an active member of the Trinity United Church in PoCo for 62 years, her family said in an email.
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