60th Anniversary – Stronger Community

On October 3rd the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs along with Kelowna Chev hosted an evening of inspiration, celebration and reflection. Over 350 people from community partners, friends of OBGC and staff gathered to hear Vu Le’s message about community working together. Diane Entwistle, CEO of OBGC and Owen Charters, CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada talked about Boys and Girls Clubs and the amazing work being done to support the children, youth and families we serve in our efforts to help build stronger communities. Mike Chisholm, former Boys and Girls Clubs member and now donor to Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs shared his personal experience and how OBGC has impacted his life. Thanks to the generous donation of business and individuals the evening celebration raised over $11,000 to support our work going forward.

Keynote Message

“The Importance of Building Community in a Turbulent World”

Vu Le will share how in this sociopolitical climate of uncertainty, the fostering of community and belonging continues to be critical. To be effective at building community, the bridges between diverse groups of individuals must be strong: Between charities and for-profits, charities and the wider community, and charities among one another. We must examine many of our philosophies and practices to see if they facilitate or hinder the sense of belonging. How do we incorporate Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in our everyday practices? In this thought-provoking and entertaining presentation (filled with pictures of baby animals for some reason), we will discuss how to work more effectively together to create a world we know is possible, where everyone belongs.

Vu’s Bio

Vu Le (“voo lay”) is a writer, speaker, vegan, Pisces, and the Executive Director of Rainier Valley Corps, a nonprofit in Seattle that promotes social justice by developing leaders of color, strengthening organizations led by communities of color, and fostering collaboration between diverse communities.

Vu’s passion to make the world better, combined with a low score on the Law School Admission Test, drove him into the field of nonprofit work, where he learned that we should take the work seriously, but not ourselves. There’s tons of humor in the nonprofit world, and someone needs to document it. He is going to do that, with the hope that one day, a TV producer will see how cool and interesting our field is and make a show about nonprofit work, featuring attractive actors attending strategic planning meetings and filing 990 tax forms.

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