twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

Last night nearly 300 people gathered at the Coast Hotel in Langley for the inaugural Fraser Valley Twestival. And what a night it was! It was SO much fun!! Our guests tasted wine and beer, sampled delicious food and fresh oysters, got airbrush tattoos, played in the photo booth, had a ton of fun playing xBox Kinect and danced their feet off with some amazing performers!

Our goal was $7500 - so far we are over $8500 in donations for Canuck Place Abbotsford. Donations are being accepted until March 31, 2011 - all funds will be added to the 2011 Fraser Valley Twestival 'pot' and will go directly to the Canuck Place. You may donate here.

This event wouldn't have been successful without the assistance and generosity of every single one of our sponsors, performers and guests. We are sooooo excited for next year's event!

Here are a few photos to share some of the great fun that we had. We look forward to sharing more photos and video with you shortly! 

On behalf of our organizing committee, we want to thank everyone involved. Whether you donated a prize, purchased a ticket or donated your product/service to making the event happen - thank you!!!!!! 

Kristi Ferguson

 There are some exciting additions to Twestival Fraser Valley, so we thought we would update everyone with a blog posting!

Here's what your $20 ticket to Twestival Fraser Valley will get you. Reminder: ticket prices raise to $30 on March 15th!

1. Exciting performances by Sound Refuge, Greg Neufeld, and March Hare band!

2. Delicious food provided by Mizuna Culinary, Mozart Bakery and a fresh oyster bar from 1 Fish 2 Fish

3. Mesmerizing contortion acts by Westcoast Contortion

4. Free wine and beer tastings from Vista D'oro Winery, Township 7 Winery and Dead Frog Brewery

5. Big screen xBox games from Digital Smart Homes

6. Hilarious photo booth fun with Jennifer Kirk Photography

7. Airbrush tattoos from Tattoos For Now

8. Chance to win some amazing raffle prizes and silent auction items.

9. Your ticket includes one drink ticket (cash bar available thereafter) and one raffle ticket.

This is going to be such a fun night out! Invite your friends, your colleagues - and see you there! Remember: 100% of funds raised from this event will benefit the new Canuck Place Abbotsford!

Twestival Fraser Valley is just 20 days away! Do you have your ticket yet?? They are only $20 until March 15th when they raise to $30, so get yours now.

Here are 20 reasons we think you should attend Twestival Fraser Valley (in no particular order)!

HUGE thanks to our financial sponsors Dr. Carolyn Anderson, Homelife Benchmark Walnut Grove, It's Your Move and MD Cosmetic & Laser Clinic. 

20. Delicious appetizers from Mizuna Culinary, our super fabulous food sponsor!

19. Awesome performances from Westcoast Contortion. These folks are unreal!

18. Big screen XBox gaming fun from Digital Smart Homes. 

17. A fantastic venue! Coast Hotel & Conference Centre is a great venue and they have a great casino downstairs! If you are interested in spending the night, please quote Twestival for a special rate.

16. Wine sampling with Township 7 and Vista D'oro - two of the Fraser Valley's most delicious wine producers! Your Twestival ticket also includes one drink from the bar.

15. March Hare. Check these guys out - they are amazing! Bring your dancing shoes.

14. Sweet treats from Mozart Bakery and Marie Antoinette Cake.

13. Get inked with a temporary airbrush tattoo or two from Tattoos For Now.

12. A fresh oyster bar from 1 Fish 2 Fish. You have to try these; you've never tasted fresher, more delicious oysters. 

11. Abbotsford's own Greg Neufeld. This guy's voice is mesmerizing!

10. Networking. Folks from all over the Fraser Valley be gathered together for the inaugural Twestival Fraser Valley! Come on out and get to know some new people.

9. The Jennifer Kirk Photography photo booth. Dress up like a goofball and show the camera some sass!

8. Raffle prizes! Check out the growing list of prize donors - impressive! Your Twestival ticket includes one raffle ticket and additional tickets will be available for purchase.

7. Sound Refuge! Enjoy an acoustic performance from this awesome local band.

6. It's the 1 year anniversary of the Fraser Valley Social Media Meetup. If you're a member, or even if you're not - come out to celebrate!

5. It's the 2 year anniversary of FraserValleyPulse.com! We will be celebrating 2 years of exploring the Fraser Valley and meeting so many of you!

4. Have your photo taken on the red carpet by Orange Memories Photography.

3. Twestival Fraser Valley hosts Kristi Ferguson, Teri-Lyn Conrad and Caree Bray want to meet YOU! It's true, we do!

2. It will be a GREAT night out! Lots of fun, lots of folks, lots of fundraising.

1. THE most important reason. We are supporting an amazing local charity - Canuck Place Abbotsford. 100% of proceeds from the event, including ticket and raffle/auction ticket sales, will go directly to Canuck Place Abbotsford! They will use the money to purchase warming blankets and other items required for inside the new hospice. 

On March 24, cities around the world will host Twestival (or Twitter Festival.) Twestival 

utilizes social media for social good by connecting communities offline on a single day to raise 

funds and awareness for local causes and have a tremendous amount of fun. 

Twestival is the largest global grassroots social media fundraising initiative to date. Since 2009, 

volunteers have raised nearly $1.2 million for 137 nonprofit groups. All local events are 

organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of ticket sales and donations go directly to the 

featured projects. 

In Vancouver, Canada, Accra, Ghana, Bangalore, India and many places in between people, 

most of whom have originally connected online, will gather in support of this initiative. This is 

the first year that the Fraser Valley will be one of those destinations! We are thrilled to 

announce that 2011’s Twestival Fraser Valley will be held at Cascades Casino in Langley. 

Would you be interesting in supporting this revolutionary event? We are currently accepting 

donations of items with a value of $50 or more, to be used as raffle prizes. The proceeds of the 

ticket sales will go directly towards this year’s featured local charity. 

You may wish to donate a hot seller or desirable service from your own store. If you’re a service 

provider, such as a real estate agent or an accountant, you may want to donate a gift basket 

from a local business, tickets to sporting events or gift certificates to spas and restaurants. 

Items that really have the “wow factor” will be certain to draw attention and consequently 

garner more support for the non profit group the ticket sales are benefiting. All proceeds from 

this raffle will be donated to Canuck Place in Abbotsford. 

We are also looking for a few key prizes with a value of $250 or more, to be featured in a silent 

auction. These donations may include weekend getaways, event tickets or other big-ticket 

items. 

All businesses and individuals who donate prizes will be featured on our website,  social media 

and press initiatives, as well as recognized during the event. 

Contributing to Twestival makes the statement that you are a progressive thinker who is 

interested in new ways of making connections with others and cares deeply about our 

community. 

If you are interested in donating a prize to Twestival Fraser Valley, or for more information, 

please contact Kristi Ferguson at kristi@fraservalleypulse.com and visit 

www.fraservalley.twestival.com. Thank you for your support of this incredible initiative. 

 Wow. What an amazing response we had to the call for nominations! Large and small organizations located east of the Port Mann bridge submitted applications and nominations to receive the funds raised from the 2011 Fraser Valley Twestival.

How did we possibly choose? Every application met the guidelines to qualify. How does one decide who is more deserving than the other? Quite simply - we don't. We went back and forth and forth and back trying to make a decision, and at last it came to literally pulling out of a hat.

We are thrilled that the charity we are supporting this year is Canuck Place Abbotsford. Most of you probably know about the great work Canuck Place does in Vancouver. Until we received the application, some of us had no idea a Fraser Valley Canuck Place was in the works! Located at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital, this children's hospice will offer palliative care to children with life-threatening illnesses and will provide support for their families.

It's one of those places that we all pray we will never have to visit, but knowing it is there is a relief. Their work is amazing and we are excited to help fund this project.

And now for a quick Twestival Fraser Valley update...

March 24th, 6-10pm
Coast Hotel in Langley
Tickets on sale soon!

We are still seeking sponsors, raffle donors and silent auction donors. If you are interested in becoming involved at all, please be in touch!!! We need the support of local businesses and individuals in order to make this the biggest, best, most fun Fraser Valley fundraiser this year!