News
Jack you amaze us! Your memory for reciting the digits of pi is remarkable as is your community spirit. Thank you for showing you care about YANA kids in your own unique way!
We are very grateful for the special Kyte Delivery Service driver who had a fundraising campaign for YANA in honour of his granddaugher,Talia, and in loving memory of Harold Flint. Thank you to Reg, also known as K-32, who drove for 90 hours and covered 3,100 km. And thanks to his colleagues who helped him reach his goal (K-39, K-28, K-7, K-33, K-35, K-15, K-19, K-16).
The Hillbilly Masters Golf Tournament at Crown Isle added YANA to their fun and we are grateful. Thank you!
Happy belated birthday, Hazel! Thank you for fundraising for YANA!
Thank you to Road Runners Learn to Run Clinic leaders and participants who took part in a special yoga class with proceeds to YANA. A big thank you to Deb Karlstrom for leading the session.
Did you know that there was a Bikram Yoga Marathon benefitting YANA where yogis participated in 3 classes back-to-back? Talk about hot and awesome!
Easter Eggstravaganza led by the Town of Comox and Investors Group was a huge success. Thank you to all contributing businesses, volunteers and participants.
Thank you, Costco, for your generous donation to YANA. We appreciate your support of local children and their families.
YANA is Moving to Tin Town May 1st
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The YANA office will be moving to 102 – 2456 Rosewall Crescent in Tin Town as of May 1. It is an exciting and busy time as we prepare for moving day. Fortunately we get by with a little help from our friends… in this case, a lot of help!
Grant Construction is renovating our new space to meet our needs and it is looking fantastic. This father and son team is showing YANA a lot of love while they volunteer together and share their talent. Painting-diva, Robbie Rusk, and her helpful side-kick, Kelly Rusk, are working their magic to ensure our walls are bright and freshly painted. Comox Moving and Storage will be moving our things free of charge. We are grateful for everyone’s efforts.
We will miss our downtown location and are forever grateful to Ives Burger Barristers and Solicitors who have provided us with a fantastic space for many years at a very low rate.
We are looking forward to our new neighbourhood and the lovely people and businesses in Tin Town. All our other contact information remains the same and there will be no gap in service to families while we transition to our new space. Please update our address in your records and come for a visit!
New address: 102 – 2456 Rosewall Crescent, Courtenay BC, V9N 8R9
Doctor brewing up unique YANA fundraiser
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Brad Harris and his wife Dennyse display a bottle of Royston Nano Brewery beer at Gladstone Brewing Company, the site of an upcoming fundraiser for YANA featuring Harris’s beer. PHOTO BY ERIN HALUSCHAK
Brad Harris isn’t afraid of a challenge.
The full-time family physician by day and self-taught brewer by night (and owner of the Royston Nano Brewery) will soon brew the most beer he has ever brewed – 1,800 litres to be exact.
And as much as he likes to share with friends, family and fellow beer-drinkers, this beer is aimed not only at ‘hop heads,’ but to give back to those who helped his family during one of their biggest challenges.
Harris, who practises at the Comox Medial Clinic and St. Joseph’s General Hospital, began brewing his first batch of beer in January 2012.
In November of that same year, his daughter Linden became ill.
“You would think I would know; it happened literally overnight. At 9:30 when I got home she was coughing and had a fever … a day later she was helicoptered off-Island. I drove with my mom to Vancouver and showed up at Children’s Hospital at the ER, and they were moving her up to oncology.”
After a battery of tests, Linden, then three-and-a-half years old, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, one of only 35 children in the province to get diagnosed with leukemia every year.
Following two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy, Linden is now healthy with a 90 per cent chance the cancer will never return, explained Harris.
While in Vancouver, Harris and his family depended on support from the Comox Valley – particularly that of You Are Not Alone (YANA), which provides accommodations and funding for local families who need to travel outside of the area for treatment for a child under 19 years of age.
Now, with the help of his brewing skills and a partnership between the Royston Nano Brewery and Gladstone Brewing Company in Courtenay, Harris is giving back, challenging himself to make his largest quantity of “unapologetically in-your-face, pushed-to-the-limit IPA.”
The limited release began brewing at Gladstone this week, and will go on sale May 6, as part of the It’s Not Just Beer, It’s Love event for pint sales and growler fills, with all profits donated equally between YANA and BC Children’s Hospital Oncology services.
Harris hopes to raise around $10,000.
“The Harris family has a powerful story,” explained Ocean Varney, community relations co-ordinator for YANA. “It’s a moving experience to hear them speak about their journey, as a family, through Linden’s treatment. Their commitment to giving back to their community and passion for YANA is inspiring. It’s definitely an endeavour that’s powered by love, and on our end we are feeling the love, for sure.”
The beer will be using a third generation Gladstone yeast – a technique used regularly – which was used to create the brewery’s porter and IPA.
Harris’s love for all things beer developed a few years ago after a dinner with friends, who asked him outside of medicine, about his passion.
“I sat back and said: ‘let me think about this. What have I been consistently interested in? Beer.’ It’s a silly thing to have a passion in, but I’ve been interested in it since I was legally able to drink.
“I’ve spent time travelling around the world, and we’ve always made sure to take time out wherever we go to make sure and try the beer. I thought – ‘hey I can brew it.’”
Between working with his patients at the hospital and spending time with his wife and two children and brewing beer, Harris admitted with a laugh he doesn’t sleep much.
The It’s Not Just Beer, It’s Love event takes place May 6 at Gladstone Brewery, starting at 5 p.m. For more information visit roystonnanobrewery.com.