Langley City Mayor Val van den Broek, together with the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation, has announced plans for a gala fundraiser to support the Foundry, a new mental health and wellness facility for young people.
“Hope Grows Here Gala” will happen Saturday, March 26, at the Cascades convention centre in Langley City.
It will be hosted by van den Broek and her husband Rob.
“This is going to be a great facility to help youth get help when they need it,” van den Broek told the Langley Advance Times.
She noted that while the Foundry will be located in Langley City, it will benefit youth in Langley Township as well, a fact she hopes will encourage donors in the other community to step up.
“It’s the Langleys,” van den Broek commented.
“We need to do this for all our kids.”
She said she agreed to host the event with her husband Rob after the foundation approached her.
Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation is raising funds to transform 20618 Eastleigh Crescent, the chosen site for Foundry, into an environment designed with young people in mind to welcome them and address all their health care concerns; and to start an Innovation Fund that will provide ongoing funding to the centre.
Find out more at FoundryLangley.ca.
Tickets to the formal charity gala will range from $266 for individual seats, to $2,123 for a table of eight.
For more event information and tickets, email hopegrowsheregala@gmail.com
READ ALSO: Dallas Smith gifts $25K to Langley youth initiative
In January of 2020, a Winter Wonderland Gala organized by van den Broek, in partnership with the local RCMP resulted in a $56,000 donation to the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation.
However, it also generated controversy, over the mayor’s use of a City logo, and over an internal memo to RCMP members in Langley from the officer in charge, by Supt. Murray Power suggesting they could work overtime to help pay for the tickets to the gala.
Power was moved out of the Langley detachment without explanation after news of the overtime offer surfaced.
Assistant Commissioner Maureen Levy, the Lower Mainland district commander, later confirmed that Power had been the subject of a Code of Conduct review, but declined to give details.
In a letter to council, Levy said the City of Langley was billed $361.44 for four hours of overtime “which could be traced back to the email that Supt. Power sent to his senior officers in order to encourage them to attend the Mayor’s Gala.”
Is there more to the story? Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
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