Outside the main ballroom of the Cascades Casino Hotel and Convention Centre, a string quartet from the Langley Community Music School was playing holiday favourites while participants in the eighth annual Thank You for Caring Christmas tea inspected several tables of donated silent auction items.
One table featured a display of $2,000 worth of custom jewelry from the Wild Moon & Star artist collective in Fort Langley made by designer Susan Rinds.
For $10, people could buy a Christmas cracker for a chance at winning the necklace and other items.
Later on, Australian native Adam Lucas performed his note-perfect tribute to Canadian crooner Michael Bublé.
Every year, the fundraiser for the Christmas Bureau sells out a little faster.
This year, more than a month in advance of the event, the tickets were gone in “about two days” said Kirsten Charlesworth, one of the volunteers.
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An estimated 500 attended the eighth annual fundraiser.
Originally known as the Mayors’ Wives Tea, the fundraising event was started by Debbie Froese, whose husband happens to be Township Mayor Jack Froese and Charlene Fassbender, wife of former City Mayor Peter Fassbender.
This year the event was co-chaired by Froese and Jean Schaffer, whose husband is former City Mayor Ted Schaffer.
The recently retired Schaffer explained that the newly elected City mayor, Val van den Broek, told them to “carry on” with the tea and the upcoming Christmas breakfast fundraiser.
“I’m just here to support my better half,” Schaffer said.
One hundred per cent of the funds and donated items go to the bureau, because sponsors cover all the costs.
