St. Clement's Day Dinner a sparkling success

The November night was chilly and dark, but the atmophere inside the Parish Hall was decidedly warm and sparkly as parishioners dressed to the 9s for the annual St. Clement's Day dinner on November 23.

Many accepted the invitation to put on the Ritz and wore their finest - Robin even pulled out a suit that he had worn at a school event with our warden over 50 years earlier! (And he still looked as dashing as ever, we might add!)

Lynda Faivre-Duboz oversaw the organization and lovely decorating, and a marvellous potluck dinner was enjoyed by all. John Stowe was, as always, a hit as our live auctioneer, and we were very impressed at the bids he managed to raise from Dubai, Nanaimo and Surrey via his earpiece! ;-)

Donations of goods ranged from computer servicing to Christmas baking to helicopter rides to a fancy group dinner to wine baskets.Thanks to the generous donors and the enthusiast bidders, the evening raised approximately $6,000! One third of this has been earmarked for general parish expenses, as noted in this year's budget; 20 per cent of the remainder will be divided between the Urban Aboriginal Ministry, the North Shore Youth Safe House and Sharing Abundance; and the rest (approximately $2,000) will be directed to St. Clement's building revitalization fund.

Thank you to all who added to the camaraderie and who pitched in with the dinner set up and clean up. And big thanks to Kath Biebrich, who spent her evening taking some very fine photos of our parishioners! Some are on view here; the rest of the "portraits" will be posted following a promised update of our webpage software, which will allow for better photo gallery potential. We hope this will take place in the next week or two, and we will let you know when we've posted more shots.