Coquitlam native Kristina Lee has always felt a close affinity with the people of Japan.
Maybe it was the time she spent there on student exchanges from Simon Fraser University or the Japanese exchange students her family hosted while she attended the former Como Lake junior high, but Lee, a mother and massage therapist, told The Tri-City News Monday that in the aftermath of the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami, she felt she had to do something to help the survivors.
And so she approached her colleagues at the Lansdowne Massage Therapy Clinic with the idea of holding a raffle to raise $5,000 for quake relief via the Canadian Red Cross.
"They all jumped at the idea," Lee said, inspiring her to ask other local businesses to contribute something to the raffle prize pool. They did.
First prize for the raffle is four $50 massage therapy sessions and a $100 gift certificate for Coquitlam Centre care of Royal LePage, with more than $500 in other prizes donated by Creative Home Furnishings, BC Biomedical Labs, the Woking Dragon restaurant, Lassthetic Salon, a local Starbucks and a local McDonald's restaurant. Burnaby's Pro-Way Printing also donated its time to reduce ticket-printing costs for the raffle.
Lee said that her $5,000 goal is the maximum she is allowed to raise with the temporary gaming licence she took out for this event.
Tickets are available for $2 each from April 4 to 9 at Creative Home Furnishings at 1100 Lansdowne Dr. and at the Starbucks coffee shop at 1192 Lansdowne Dr. The draw will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 9 at Lansdowne Massage Therapy, 205-1194 Lansdowne Dr., Coquitlam.
For more information, go to the Facebook page "Raffle for Red Cross Relief to Japan."
