Our annual First Call gala features a delicious Indian buffet dinner, a silent auction full of amazing gifts, tickets to arts events, getaways and more, a raffle with exciting prizes, time to mingle with old and new friends, and a chance to celebrate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s work for the children and youth of our province.

Tickets: $75 per seat, or $40 for those on a fixed income, and reserved tables of 8 for $575.

Please purchase or register all individual tickets and group tables of 8 online here.

For more information please call 604-709-6970 or email john@firstcallbc.org.

Learn more at www.firstcallbc.org/gala/

MARY ELLEN TURPEL-LAFOND

Known to many for her work as British Columbia’s Representative for Children and Youth since 2006, Mary Ellen was appointed a judge in Saskatchewan at age 35 and has taught or lectured at a number of universities from University of Victoria to Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

Before establishing her legacy as a fierce advocate for BC’s young people, Mary Ellen was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow in 1994 and one of the Top 20 Canadian Leaders for the 21st Century in 1999. Mary Ellen also holds advanced degrees from University of Cambridge and Harvard University, obtained following time at Carleton University and York University.

Appointed for a second term as BC’s Representative for Children and Youth in 2011, during her tenure Mary Ellen released nearly 100 reports and 200 recommendations to help improve the lives of BC’s most vulnerable young people.

“There is no resource more precious in BC than its children,” she wrote in her final report. “Few would argue that and yet children have not been the focus of government in BC for many years. This government must work on its ability to own up to its shortcomings and address them. BC’s children deserve that much.”

“I hope,” Mary Ellen said in an October 2016 interview with Global News, “they will say she held people’s feet to the fire and she went to where the kids were.”