Surrey firefighters again volunteered their time to make Bright Nights at Stanley Park this holiday season.
Opened Friday (Nov. 29) until Jan. 4, the annual attraction lights up the Vancouver park in a fundraiser for the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund.
For a month, hundreds of local firefighters volunteered their off-duty hours – some right after 24-hour shifts – to set up close to three million Christmas lights.
Entry is by donation, and an online 50/50 raffle raises additional money for the cause, on brightnightsraffle.com. Last year’s jackpot reached $422,710.
The whimsical, cartoonish "Hall 1271" display of Surrey Fire Fighters Charitable Society is a yearly highlight of Bright Nights, where all train-ride tickets were sold soon after they went on sale Nov. 8. Even without a train ticket, people are welcome to enjoy the lights and displays in the park.
Surrey Fire Fighters Charitable Society has been busy in Surrey, too, announcing a $5,000 donation to the Toy Mountain initiative at Guildford Town Centre. Also at the mall, firefighters have a kiosk where people can get gifts wrapped by donation.
Now at Stanley Park, Bright Nights’ roots are in Surrey, in a Newton cul-de-sac.
In the mid-1980s, Bob Wingfield and Marg Barrett began attracting people to their home with a giant “Winter Wonderland” display of Christmas lights, just east of the old Surrey Public Market site, near 64th Avenue and King George Boulevard.
Local firefighters eventually helped put up the display, and donations were collected for the burn unit at Vancouver General Hospital. In 1997 all those lights were brought to Stanley Park for use in a then-new Bright Nights event.
Proceeds fund burn survivor programs year-round, including Burn Camp and Home Away Program, which provides accommodations to survivors, firefighters and their families who must travel to Vancouver for medical treatment.
Established in 1978 by the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Association, the Burn Fund is supported by more than 4,500 professional firefighters from 55 communities in B.C. and Yukon. Learn more at Burnfund.org.
While Bright Nights remains free for all to experience, parking near Stanley Park Railway is limited this year due to Metro Vancouver’s Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel Project. A two-hour paid parking limit applies in the main railway lot, for $7.50. Free parking is available at the Stanley Park information booth, Vancouver Aquarium and Lumberman’s Arch.
"The Burn Fund, though unable to control these parking costs, encourages visitors to plan ahead, allow extra travel time and consider using public transit, walking or cycling to make the most of their visit," said Burn Fund communications manager Jane Spitz.
