Account Login/Registration

Access KelownaNow using your Facebook account, or by entering your information below.


Facebook


OR


Register

Privacy Policy

Kelowna Mayor, WFN Chief get quarantine haircuts after raising $23K for new Health Sciences Centre

Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran and Westbank First Nation Chief Christopher Derickson are sporting new haircuts after taking part in a fundraising campaign for Okanagan College’s new Health Sciences Centre.

Both leaders were able to raise more than $10,000 each, for a total of $23,000, for the campaign, and, having met their fundraising goals, met up in the College’s courtyard recently for a physically-distanced haircut from their partners, Leanne Basran and Jordan Derickson. A video of the haircut is available here.

<who>Photo credit: Okanagan College

“I’m a huge supporter of Okanagan College and I wanted to do my part in helping this campaign,” said Colin.

“I know Christopher serves on the College’s Board and I thought the two of us could lend our names to this amazing campaign to raise some money.”

The new Health Sciences Centre will train students for eight frontline health care professions.

<who>Photo credit: Okanagan College

The Chief and Mayor’s involvement also unlocked another gift. Okanagan College President Jim Hamilton donated $5,000 after the campaign surpassed $10,000.

“This is a very worthy cause, I’m glad to have been a part of it. I’m excited to see the amount of support we generated from this campaign and they still need to raise money, the campaign itself isn’t over,” said Christopher.

“While we all might be getting our haircuts now with our regular salons and barbers you can still give to the campaign, they still need to raise money for this wonderful Health Sciences building.”

Haircuts for Health Care launched in mid-April, nearly a month after non-essential businesses including salons were forced to close.

More than 380 people have contributed, raising more than $38,000.

<who>Photo credit: Okanagan College

The fundraiser invited people who were in desperate need of a haircut to open up their own ‘self-isolation salon’ and hand the clippers to their kids or spouse.

People could donate the cost of a typical haircut or go for a creative cut and fundraise from their friends.

“We are so grateful to Colin and Chris for supporting this campaign. In the process of sacrificing their hair, they have given our campaign a major boost and underlined the importance of health care education for our community,” says Helen Jackman, Okanagan College Foundation Executive Director.

“We’d like to thank everyone in the community who donated. Your generosity and community spirit at this extraordinary time is inspiring.”



If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.

If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.


Send your comments, news tips, typos, letter to the editor, photos and videos to news@kelownanow.com.




weather-icon
Fri
12℃

weather-icon
Sat
12℃

weather-icon
Sun
15℃

weather-icon
Mon
17℃

weather-icon
Tue
16℃

weather-icon
Wed
12℃

current feed webcam icon

Recent Livestream




Top Stories

Follow Us

Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Linkedin Follow us on Youtube Listen on Soundcloud Follow Our TikTok Feed Follow Our RSS Follow Our pinterest Feed
Follow Our Newsletter
Privacy Policy