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News FROM THE VALLEY
Whistler Search and Rescue celebrates 40 years
BIGGEST SAR FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR SET FOR OCT. 13
By John French
Whistler Search and Rescue (WSAR)
members are preparing to get Wine’d
Up for the organization’s biggest annual
fundraising event.
Tickets for the event go on sale Sept. 1
and SAR’s Sue Stafford said all the tickets for
the party sold out in just eight days last year.
To date, the Wine’d Up parties have
raised more than $380,000 to help
cover training costs and the purchase of
equipment.
Stafford said the event is slated for Oct.
13 at Dusty’s in Whistler Creekside, and
includes dinner, a silent auction and a live
auction. Five of the resort’s top chefs will
prepare the meal and Gary Raymond is
scheduled to lead the live auction.
Stafford said the event has raised
between $48,000 and $52,000 each year
in the last three and she expects to reach
that range again this year.
“The half million dollar figure is coming
closer to me,” said Stafford. “I’m really
on the big push. I’d really love to push a
bit hard but with the economic times not
everybody has quite the deeper pockets
they had.”
She said the event gets great support
every year from Whistler Blackcomb
through the donation of the venue and the
use of the reservation system to sell tickets.
The Wagner Family of Wine is donating
the wine for the event and Stafford said
many other businesses are contributing to
the fundraiser.
Brad Sills, a founding member and
director of WSAR, said the very-busy volunteer
members of his organization wouldn’t be
able to fulfill its mandate without the support
Wine’d Up gets each year.
“The sheer cost of maintaining rescue
quality equipment and training regimes is
a constant burden in the face of uncertain
funding sources,” Sills said. “We are all
so privileged to live in a community that
recognizes the need for this service.”
Event tickets can be purchased by
calling the WB reservations line at 1-800-
766-0449 when sales begin on Sept. 1.
Only 130 tickets will be sold to the party. ■
Fawcett expected to enter plea at next hearing
INFORMATION SHARING NOW COMPLETE AMONGST LEGAL TEAMS IN SLED DOG CASE
When Robert Fawcett appears next in court he is
expected to enter a plea to causing unnecessary
pain or suffering to an animal following a sled
dog cull in April of 2010.
Fawcett didn’t appear in North Vancouver
Provincial court on Aug. 16, but his lawyer, Greg
Diamond, confirmed he now has the information
needed to discuss with his client what his plea will be.
“We have had discussions and further
disclosures,” Crown Counsel Nicole Grégoire told
Judge Steven Merrick. “Submissions are complete.”
Merrick confi rmed that an arraignment
hearing would take place at the courts on Aug.
30 at 1:30 p.m. The purpose of an arraignment
hearing is to enter a plea.
There were no protesters at the latest hearing,
unlike the first hearing in North Vancouver, which
attracted a small group of animal activists.
Fawcett was the general manager of the
Whistler-based Howling Dog Tours at the time of
the sled dog cull north of Whistler.
The BCSPCA spent more than $200,000 to
investigate after it was discovered that Fawcett had
given WorkSafe BC details of the cull when he applied
for benefits for post traumatic stress disorder.
Details of the killings were leaked to
reporters in January 2011, after Fawcett was
awarded WorkSafe BC benefits. The gruesome
details led to an international outcry.
The BCSPCA submitted a 1,000-page report
to Crown Counsel in September of 2011. Earlier,
the BC SPCA uncovered the remains of 54 sled
dogs from a mass grave at the company’s sled
dog operations site, though the original allegations
suggested that up to 100 dogs were killed. ■
- John French
28 | August 23, 2012 | www.piquenewsmagazine.com