Christmas is one of my favourite seasons because of the foods, party, foods, party just #LOL.
I immigrated from an Asian Country to Canada when I was a teenager. My first white snowy Christmas was in Canada. It was extremely cold but it was such a fun time to play snow fights with my brother; making snowman and enjoying the hot chocolates with my friends. Now I am having these fun traditions with my kids every year. Merry Christmas.
Clara H – Triovest
Nous sommes très privilégiés de vivre dans le plus beau pays du Monde. L’été dernier j’ai eu le plaisir de découvrir Terre-Neuve, la dernière province sur ma liste d’endroits à visiter. A Cape Spear, près de St-John’s, je regardai vers l’océan en respirant profondément car j’étais au point de le plus à l’est de l’Amérique du Nord. Quel site!
Mon histoire se passe en 2015 durant un voyage d’affaires à Vancouver. Nous étions réunis, a l’occasion de la remise annuelle des prix LEAP de HOOPP, a l’excellente propriété Marine Gateway gérée par Triovest. Ce complexe multifonctionnel ayant la certification LEED Or est bien servi par le transport public et offre des espaces résidentiels, commerciaux et de bureaux. J’ai reçu durant la cérémonie, au nom de l’équipe du Québec, deux trophées LEAP de HOOPP. Ces trophées reconnaissaient notre travail et l’implication environnementale des locataires.
Durant une pause et faisant face à l’océan, avec les magnifiques Rocheuses à l’arrière-plan, j’ai pris une grande respiration de notre air frais canadien. Quelle joie de vivre dans un pays aussi merveilleux!
Jean-Marie S-G – Triovest
How lucky we are to live in the most beautiful country on earth… This summer I had the pleasure of discovering Newfoundland, the last province on my to do list. In Cape Spear near St-John’s, I was looking across the ocean and breathing deeply as I was standing in the most eastern point of North America. What a site!
My story is about a 2015 business trip that I took in Vancouver. We were gathering for the annual HOOPP LEAP Award at the excellent Marine Gateway managed by Triovest. This mixed-use property with LEED Gold certification is transit oriented and a complete community with residential, office and retail spaces. I received, during the ceremony and on behalf of the Quebec team, two LEAP awards from HOOPP. We were recognized for our work in tenant engagement.
During a break and while facing the Pacific Ocean with the beautiful Rocky Mountains in the background, I took a deep breath of our fresh Canadian air. It is a real privilege to live in such a wonderful country.
Jean-Marie S-G – Triovest
Having retired from full time employment with Coril Holdings at the end of 2014, and launching my new ‘life business’, 6IX PASSIONS, in January of 2015, I simply could not have imagined how spectacularly things would unfold to allow me to celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday in 2017!!
Firstly, of my 6IX PASSIONS, one is to “Consult to businesses as a Senior Advisor.” and am delighted that Coril Holdings asked me to stay on in that capacity on a part time basis, thus allowing me to participate in contributing to this outstanding collection of Coril 150 Stories. Secondly, one of my other 6IX PASSIONS, “To explore my creative side.” led to the story that unfolds below.
As I was approaching retirement in 2014, and reflecting back on my time as a student in Electrical Engineering at The University of Alberta in the late 1960’s, I realized that one of the best times I had had in my life was singing, dancing and acting as a member of the cast of The U of A’s Faculty of Drama musical production of George Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. It was early fall of 1968, and through the sheer coincidence of beginning to date a girl who also happened to be auditioning for a part, I unknowingly crashed the auditions, got talked into trying my pipes on stage and ultimately won a significant role, having zero intention to do anything other than have coffee with my date. The subsequent experience of four months of rehearsals, and seven nights of performing with a full cast, chorus and orchestra was just incredible. Girl Crazy opened in the spring of 1969, my graduation year, in the fabulous Students Union Building’s brand new theatre at the U of A. The people I met were nearly all drama students and their passion and attitudes were fabulous. I loved it, and upon graduation that following June, left my exploration of the stage behind for a career in business.
Forty five years later, I began to wonder whether or not I had what it took to successfully audition to join a 50+ person, high performance group of rock music singers in Calgary, called Revv52. It took a Christmas gift from my daughter, Jessica and her partner, Wayne, in December of 2014 to open a huge door for me to embark on what has truly become a ‘magic carpet ride’. Jessica and Wayne gave me a gift certificate for a two hour vocal assessment session with a very accomplished vocal coach in Calgary, Brian Farrell www.brianfarrell.ca That led to an exciting and anxiety filled three months of work leading up to Revv52 auditions at the end of August 2015. I cannot thank my wife, Stephanie, and my sister, Clair Paulson, enough for their unwavering encouragement. Amazingly, I was ultimately successful (after nervously attending two Revv52 rehearsals in early September to see how my voice blended and balanced…or not…with the rest of the group) and from that moment on, I entered a whole big huge beautiful new world of many dimensions of learning, music, performing and building incredible relationships with people I would never have otherwise met.
Since that audition in August of 2015 (and mandatory auditions each August since, to ‘get back in’), I have had the phenomenal pleasure and experience of performing on stage in four uniquely different concerts in 2016 and 2017, each of them with four performances. Performing all rock and pop music, with specially written arrangements for Revv52 (for four part harmony), and accompanied by our Revv52 five member rock band. www.revv52.com Check out YouTube too, for great performances by Revv52.
We also performed in Carnegie Hall in New York City in March of 2016, something that just wasn’t even remotely on my radar screen. That was a fabulous experience.
Then, another door opened and in front of me was the biggest opportunity I have ever had. Some background first: in the fall of 2016, I was fortunate to meet a fellow by the name of Dave Pierce www.davepiercemusic.com at Ron Mannix’ and Diane Deacon’s wedding in San Diego. When Dave discovered that I was a member of Revv52, he told me that he wanted Revv52 to perform as one of the acts in the world famous Calgary Stampede Evening Grandstand Show in July of 2017, as part of The Calgary Stampede’s big Canada 150 Birthday Celebrations. Turns out that Dave, a Grammy award winning producer for his work producing the Opening Ceremonies for Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics, was also the Producer of record for The Stampede Evening Grandstand Show too, a Las Vegas style multi-act outdoor variety extravaganza with audiences of up to 25,000 people each night for eleven nights!! Little did I know he was recruiting for acts for that 2017 Stampede Evening Show!
As a Calgary native, who had attended probably forty Calgary Stampedes in my life, to have the opportunity to perform on that big outdoor Grandstand Stage that I had watched as a spectator for years, and in my hometown, was beyond my imagination.
I introduced the opportunity to my fellow members of Revv52, the excitement built over the early part of 2017 as we met with Dave Pierce, his choreographers, stage managers and music directors and after 9 days of rehearsal in late June and early July, we opened on July 8th with Jann Arden, The Alberta Ballet, high wire acts, aerial specialists, Irish Dancers and many other artists. We performed Joni Mitchell’s award winning song, Both Sides Now with Treaty Seven dancers flanking us. Contrary to the experience of many vocalists performing in outdoor venues, who are usually required to pre-record their vocals and then sing un-amplified on stage with the sound system playing their recorded voices, Revv52 sang into live microphones each night simply because Dave Pierce and his crew were so impressed during rehearsal with the high quality of our voices.
And again, through the magic of music and the intensity of nine rehearsals and eleven evening shows, we established new relationships with many, many great people, both performing artists and back stage professionals. Nothing prepared any of us for the gut thrill of singing O Canada with all 380 artists stretched across that stage, performing the finale each night with a ground shaking display of fireworks all around us and 25,000 people standing in their seats singing their hearts out with us.
Ken W – Coril Holdings Ltd.
An Alberta fall on the prairies…blue skies, golden fields of grains in harvest and the sound of thousands and thousands of migratory birds making their way from warm summers in their Northwest Territories nesting grounds to warm winter climates in the southern United States and Mexico.
Also the season for the time honored family tradition of hunting migratory birds during the regulated Alberta Hunting season. Parents who were brought up as bird-game hunters by their parents, passing the exhilaration of spending time with their children outdoors, learning about wildlife, firearms safety and managing good relations with farmers and land owners whose grain crops were ‘shared’ with those many thousands of migratory birds.
In the late 1950’s, Fred C. Mannix , or FC as he was known, became a joint owner of a small and very well located lodge, known as Richdale Lodge, just east of Hanna, Alberta. The location was right in the middle of a centuries old migratory bird ‘flyway’, and was surrounded by countless sections of cultivated land bursting with crops of oats, wheat, barley, peas and canola. Canada geese, Ross’s geese and Snow geese along with many different breeds of ducks covered the fields during their morning and late afternoon feedings and provided challenging opportunities for FC, his friends and his family to set up decoys and try their luck at harvesting dinner!
FC often invited his brother’s in-law, R.A. Bob Kramer from Regina and E.D. Don Wilson from Calgary to join him at Richdale Lodge for a few days of comradery and hunting. As their families grew, FC and Don would bring their children, Fred P. Mannix, Ron Mannix and Ken and Paul and David and Mike Wilson to the Lodge, thus setting up what has become a tradition to this day: the Mannix and Wilson families gathering at Richdale Lodge in the fall for great laughs, food and hopefully goose dinner!!
One of these occasions was in October of 1987 when Bob Kramer turned 80 years old. FC invited his sons, and Don Wilson with his sons to come to Richdale Lodge for the celebration. There was an awful lot more story telling than hunting that weekend, and many, many laughs.
Since then, Fred P. Mannix and Paul Wilson have become owners of Richdale Lodge along with another long-time Calgary business man, W.G. Bill Turnbull and the tradition continues to this day. And the fall of 2017 was no exception with both Mannix’ and Wilson visits to Richdale Lodge in September and October.
Ken W – Coril Holdings Ltd.
2017 was an exciting year for me because I took on my first Chair position of the Annual Bladder Cancer Awareness Walk. I have been involved with the event since my diagnosis of Bladder Cancer back in 2014. My first year I was a participant and walked with my family and friends and raised money for Bladder Cancer Canada. The following 2 years I volunteered as part of the walk planning committee and found the work to be incredibly rewarding. Then after last year’s walk (2016) our Chair Val asked me if I would consider co-chairing with her as she is looking to take a less involved roll down the road. I was thrilled to have been asked and said I would be honored and excited to be more involved. Throughout 2017 Val and Alisha (another co-chair) and I worked to build our best event yet. We called ourselves the co-co-chairs. With Val’s leadership and guidance, and with Alisha and I bringing new ideas to the table we managed to put together an incredible event this year. Our participants took the time to let us know just how much they enjoyed this year’s walk.
As one of the least known cancers our mission is simple to create and spread awareness. Did you know that bladder cancer is the 5th most common type of cancer in Canada? This fact is a surprise to most people. It also has the highest recurrence rate of any cancer, which also makes it the most expensive to treat. The people who participate in our walk know this well enough as many of them are patients, survivors or family members of people who’ve been diagnosed. It is such a joy to see this wonderful group of people rally together to make a difference and show support for each other.
Our walk is a national event, which in 2017 occurred in over 20 cities across the country. 2018 is shaping up to be another great year, we are still working on locking in a date, but if your interested in participating, donating or volunteering please contact me!
Courtney B – INLIV
Woodside Square Shopping Centre this past month gifted a sizeable donation, which totaled $3455.00, to the Scarborough Hospital Foundation. For the third holiday season in a row the mall made a concerted effort to raise funds for the foundation through their Charity Gift Wrap Station and Photos with Santa. Prices for wrapped gifts and photos ranged from $3.00 to $12.00. Customer Service Representatives encouraged mall patrons to use the holiday services for a great cause and informed customers about where the proceeds would be donated. There could not have been a better way for the mall to end off a year of initiative driven collaborations while setting their sights on fresh, new ambitions for 2018. Raising awareness for organizations like the Scarborough Hospital Foundation are one of the many ways Woodside Square Shopping Centre and its staff have committed themselves to giving back to the community.
“The generosity and efforts of mall patrons and community members never ceases to amaze me. Our humble shopping centre, Woodside Square, was able to raise more money for the Scarborough Hospital Foundation than I could have imagined. We are very appreciative of the kind and giving people who support the mall at every turn,” Fatima Malik, Marketing Manager for Woodside Square Shopping Centre.
To find out how you can donate the Scarborough Hospital Foundation, please visit http://www.tsh.to/
Fatima M – Triovest
