As Stanley Park hosts Harry Potter for the vacations, charity Bright Nights seeks new residence – BC

An annual Vancouver charity vacation custom is looking for a brand new residence this 12 months.

For 27 years, the B.C. Professional Firefighters Burn Fund has held its annual “Bright Nights” charity occasion in Stanley Park.

The occasion includes a huge show of vacation lights, music and the centrepiece attraction, the Stanley Park miniature practice, because it collects donations for burn survivors and sick and injured firefighters.

The practice has been out of fee since final December, when exhaust from certainly one of its locomotives brought about a driver to develop into ailing and require medical consideration.

That was solely the newest incident in a string of issues wit the growing old tools.

Rather than go for a modified model of Bright Nights, the Vancouver Park Board has as an alternative turned to a juggernaut popular culture franchise for a winter occasion.

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Stanley Park Train closure impacts charity

Admission to Harry Potter™: A Forbidden Forest Experience will begin at $49, thrice the price of a Bright Nights move.

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And whereas there will likely be loads of Hufflepuffs and Hippogriffs on website, the firefighters will likely be absent this 12 months.

“We were of course disappointed when we heard the announcement that the train wasn’t going to be up and operational,” burn fund government director Jeff Sauvé stated.

The group is now pivoting because it appears for another venue.

Sauvé stated it hopes to have the ability to reveal a brand new plan inside weeks.

“I’m not sure if it will cover what we traditionally have through Bright Nights at Stanley Park, that’s a longstanding tradition,” he stated.

“But what I do know is throughout this journey, the public has been unbelievable. Individual donors, communities, private enterprise have reached out and said, hey, how can we help?”

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Future of Stanley Park Train stays unclear

The annual fundraiser makes up a important portion of the burn fund’s finances.

At its peak, he stated the Bright Nights at Stanley Park fundraiser, the place 1000’s of lights are strung up across the mini practice station and folks using the practice make a donation to the park, raised as much as half one million {dollars}. They additionally obtained a proportion from the practice gross sales.

About 800 firefighters spend near a month mounting the lights.

“This needs to be treated as a reprieve while the park board can figure out what the future of the train is,” Sauvé stated.

“In the meantime, we are going to come up with a great plan B to make sure that individuals do have somewhere to go to get a candy cane from the firefighters and celebrate the season alongside of us.”

The mini practice’s indefinite derailment got here after the Vancouver Park Board spent years underinvesting within the well-liked and worthwhile attraction.

Its future now appears unsure.

The park board informed Global News it’s exploring new “operating and business models” for the railway website, including it’s in talks with the burn fund to assist the charity attain its fundraising objectives.

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