To the theme of “Spring Dreams,” the community came out and wholeheartedly supported the sixth annual TRU Grit fundraising gala for Thompson Rivers University Williams Lake campus held Saturday in Williams Lake.
As guests began to arrive, gala chair Nancy Giesbrecht said 136 tickets were sold for the event and the community had once again been extremely generous with silent and live auction item donations.
“We have over 40 items for the silent auction this year,” she said.
All the money raised at the gala each year goes to toward scholarships and bursaries for Williams Lake and area students to attend the Williams Lake campus.
“To date we have raised $150,000 at the past six galas so I’m hoping we can meet what we usually make — $25,000 or $30,000,” Giesbrecht said. “It would be awesome to make that this year.”
Many students helped with the event, from bartending to greeting guests, and setting the tables.
“They’ve shown up and are helping and on Friday a whole bunch of students were fluffing the flowers you see on the wall and helping decorate,” Giesbrecht said. “One of the nursing programs let the students out early one day to help and some of them put up the lights.”
Teresa Sure prepared the meal and said she sold her bistro last year on Second Avenue and rented a kitchen to start her own catering business.
Eventually she was asked to run the cafeteria at the TRU Williams Lake campus, and as a result was in charge of the Gala’s food.
As she introduced her chef Ron Schutz, and her husband Willie Sure, who was helping her out, Sure said when Willie isn’t working at Cariboo GM he gives her a hand.
Members of Williams Lake Rotary were also there barbecuing steak and chicken, something Giesbrecht said was a new addition to the gala.
Many people chose to dress formally for the occasion, which Giesbrecht said is always a fun aspect of putting on a gala.
After the live and silent auction were completed, guests danced the night away to Moon Coin Show Band from Vancouver, B.C.
In 2012, a group of local people formed TRU Grit as a fundraising entity, inspired by the movie True Grit, which was playing at the time.
We have not heard back from TRU yet on how much money was raised at the event.
