Mannkind is off on another medical mission with Operation Rainbow Canada (ORC) and this time we’re going to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Mannkind director Dave Mann and a community volunteer will be away from February 12th to the 26th to provide on-the-ground support for the ORC medical team, and to explore opportunities to advance our international orphan support programs in the region.

ORC’s mission is to provide reconstructive surgery to indigent children in medically under-served areas of the world; they also engage in education with physicians and nurses in order to enhance the level of care to promote self-sufficiency within the countries they serve.

Here’s a quick video overview of ORC’s amazing work from a 2009 Global TV interview with ORC’s founder, and active field surgeon, Dr. Kimit Rai:

Mannkind will also be providing $15,000 to help finance the mission.  We are grateful to have the financial capacity to provide significant support for this important mission, and we would like to thank our Winter Wonderland Gala donors and corporate sponsors  for providing us with the financial resources, and encouragement, to expand this aspect of our mission for 2012.

This will be ORC’s fifth mission to Phnom Penh and the first visit to the Preah Ket Mealea Hospital.  Our host for this mission will be Dr. Nous Sarom, Cambodia’s leading maxillo-facial surgeon.  Here’s a quick video of Dr. Sarom describing the details of the facial-operations he performs:

Please continue to visit our website and facebook page for regular video and blog updates!  You are also welcome to get involved and show your support for our Cambodia mission through a financial contribution.

You can donate quickly and securely online here.

Here are some cool quick facts about Cambodia for your to enjoy and to begin learning about this amazing country and culture!  We look forward to sharing our trip with you and we encourage your questions and comments about the mission along the way!

MKCS

Here’s the link for the results: 2012 Winter Wonderland Gala Survey Results

Keep an eye out for upcoming blogs and our annual report to check out the fundraising details for this year’s gala, along with our plans for 2012 and some exciting new programs that we will be initiating here in Surrey in partnership with the Surrey Urban Mission Society.

MKCS

Thanks to all the awesome volunteers & members and the amazing donors & sponsors that supported our 2012 Winter Wonderland Gala!

If you have a second to spare, please share your thoughts about the Gala in an online survey so that we can improve things for next year!

We look forward to sharing our vision and plans for 2012 soon!

Keep an eye out for our annual report and some new evaluations that will be coming out later this month!  In the mean time, check out the new media in our video gallery–the event video from the Winter Wonderland Gala is in the works now and should be ready soon.

Check out our Facebook page for updates!

We had about 50-60 guests attend the dinner on Friday night and each person enjoyed a full plate (or two) of very nicely cooked turkey, tasty vegetables, creamy mashed potatoes and fresh salad.  Every guest was served at their table by Mannkind and/or community volunteers.

The great thing about organizing a charitable event during the holiday’s is that it attracts a lot of good-hearted, self-less people from the community that just want to join-in the spirit of giving and gratitude that the season celebrates.

Just before we began serving at 5pm there were a bunch of community members that had stopped by the Urban Mission to drop-off warm clothes, care packages and pet food for those in need and saw that we were about to serve a warm meal to the people lining up outside, and so they rolled up their sleeves and jumped right in to serve turkey and help clean-up!

A BIG holiday thank-you to all the volunteers that took time away from their families and last minute Christmas preparations to give their energy and attention to those in need in their community!

This was the last community event of 2011 for Mannkind and we were very happy to see how many volunteers joined us that night, thanks-you all again very much!  We hope you will consider joining us on Saturday, December 23rd for our New Year’s Eve Winter Wonderland Fundraising Gala!

Tickets are still available so if you don’t have plans yet and you are looking for something fun for the whole family, we hope you will consider coming to the gala to celebrate Mannkind’s work-to-date and what’s to come in 2012!

You can check out the rest of the pictures from this event in our Photo Gallery.

Here’s the Google Map, there’s lots of parking available for volunteers.

We will need members & volunteers there at 4pm for preparations and at 5pm to serve the meal and help clean-up!  We will be finished at 6:30pm so that another community program can use the space.

Please feel free to join us as we look forward to celebrating the spirit of giving with a warm, nutritious meal for the community just before the holidays.  SUMS is expecting over 100 people so there will be lots for our members and volunteers to do!

Big THANK-YOU to Surrey Costco for donating 15 grain-fed turkeys: 7 will be served during the dinner on December 23rd and the remaining 8 will be wrapped up and sent out with Christmas hampers to families in need this holiday season!

Here’s some information about SUMS:

Surrey Urban Mission Society

Contact our staff for more information and keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter for updates!

Mannkind 2012 Gala sponsor CityTV/OMNI were on-site covering the event and Surrey Leader published an article as well.

Here are a few pictures from that day at Oppenheimer Park taken by Mannkind volunteer & event-photographer Derek Robitaille.  You can check out the rest of the pictures in our Photo Gallery.

This year’s Winter Coat, Blanket & Sock drive would not have been possible without the support of our donors, members, volunteers and community partners: Again a sincere thank you to ASAPBC, Friendship Providers in Action, Surrey Costco and all local businesses and families that supported the drive this year!

More Mannkind Community Events:

Please join us for the 2012 New Year’s Eve Winter Wonderland  Fundraising Gala:

Your support for this event will ensure that Mannkind can continue its mission to fight poverty, advance music and arts education, expand city green-spaces and improve care facilities for orphan children around the world.

We look forward to seeing you there!  Get your tickets now!

A HUGE and on-going THANK-YOU to all of our sponsors and donors who make this event possible, fun and exciting every year–especially this year as we celebrate the coming of 2012 and a new series of Mannkind community programs in Surrey!

Mannkind Super-Hero Sponsors: $7,500 (+)

OMNI and CityTV

•  Duel Community Promotions Package

Mannkind Hero Sponsors: $3,000(+)

RJ1200 Vancouver’s #1 Bollywood Station!

Have a listen yourself!  Here’s our two community ads on the air right now (one in English and the other in Punjabi):

RJ1200 Mannkind commercials

•  Community Promotions Package
• Ticket Give-Away and Live Interview on Dec. 22nd between 4 and 5pm with Mannkind Founder Dave Mann

Mainland Civil Works Inc.

• Mannkind Hero Sponsor!

Mannkind Super-Supporters: $1,500(+)

Custom Luxury: Vancouver/San Francisco

Give Preet a call, she wonderfully creative and would love to help you!

• Auction items: Jewelry
• Door and Raffle Draw Prizes

Mannkind Supporters:  $500(+)

Lime Design Studio

• Door/Raffle Prizes

Granville Island Coffee Company

• Door/Raffle Prizes

Pattar Cedar Products Ltd.

• Gala Sponsorship

Halton Homes

• Gala Sponsorship

Mannkind Friends: 0-$500

Gold Key Insurance Services (Surrey, BC)

• Gala Sponsorship

Kalena’s Shoes and Accessories

• Door/Raffle Prizes

Stile Wines, Spirits and Beer

• Gala Sponsorship

Mela Boutique

• Door/Raffle Prizes

Mishe Jewels

• Door/Raffle Prize

Vancouver Aquarium

• Door/Raffle Prize

Smooth Laser Clinic (Surrey, BC)

• Door/Raffle Prize

Heritage Grill (New Westminster)

• Door/Raffle Prize

Jesse Kalsi

• Door/Raffle Prize

Surrey Leader

• Event Promotion

There will be more sponsors added to this page as the event draws near so please show your support for these wonderful sponsors and keep checking back and visiting their websites for great gift ideas and holiday activities!

Everyone at Mannkind is very excited about this year’s event and we would like to take a moment in the midst of all the preparations to stop for a quick second and thank all of the members, volunteers and community partners that help make this event the success that it is every year: Thank-you!  :)

We still have tickets available so if you are interested in joining us for a night of great food, awesome entertainment and amazing food please call us at 604-613-6858 to reserve your table, or order your tickets online here.

Getting the word out during the holiday season can be a challenge but Mannkind has been able to establish amazing partnerships that ensure everyone in the community knows about what’s happening and can have an opportunity to contribute to Mannkind’s mission to fight poverty, advance music & arts education, expand city green-spaces and improve care facilities for orphan children around the world.

OMNI and CityTV really stepped-up this year to help us spread the word about our New Year’s Eve event and also about Mannkind’s mission in Surrey, Vancouver and abroad.  Their community events team provided us with a Super-Hero level promotions package that makes them our leading event contributor for the 2012 Gala!

So please check out OMNI’s Community Calendar and their online community events page for details about the event.

Mannkind’s 2012 Fundraising Gala will also be mentioned live on CityTV’s Breakfast Television and their online community events page!  A BIG THANK-YOU to OMNI/CityTV and their community events team for helping us get the word out and for sharing Mannkind’s mission in Surrey!

Please visit OMNI to check out what’s new: www.omnibc.ca

You can also visit CityTV, lots of great shows and events happening here too: www.breakfasttelevision.ca

We would also like to thank Base-10 Design & Development for their great work ethic and easy-going project management style.  Creating a website from scratch can be a daunting task, but Cas and Ramin at Base-10 really made the whole process very straightforward and our new Mannkind online communications team really learned a lot along the way.

Base-10 is located in North Vancouver and you can check out their website and blog if you have any questions about them or comments about our new website, they’d love to hear your feedback!

Preparations for our 2012 Winter Wonderland New Year’s Eve Fundraising Gala are already well under way!  Many of our members and volunteers are already out there selling tickets and securing sponsorships and I would like to thank them for their amazing effort and support so far!  Our 2012 Gala is going to be a blast!

We’re also doing another Winter Coat, Blanket and Sock drive this year!  We’re partnering with the Association of South Asian Business Professionals of BC (ASAPBC) to make sure that those in need stay warm and dry this winter.  This will be our second Coat & Sock drive and ASAPBC’s third blanket drive so it’s great to see that there is a lot of sustained interest in the community for these kinds of programs!

ASAPBC is supported by a generous contribution from HSBC this year, and just yesterday, we were was able to secure the support of our friends at Surrey Costco.  They have agreed to encourage all 250 of their employees to donate coats, socks and other items for the drive!

Last time we did this we were able to gather 252 coats, 262 pairs of socks, 8 scarves, 16 blankets, 19 pairs of gloves, 22hats and 217 miscellaneous articles of clothing.  So let’s try and beat those totals to make an even bigger impact this year!

Our December Coat, Sock and Blanket Drive will wrap-up on December 18^th where Mannkind and ASAPBC volunteers will head down to Oppenheimer Park in the Downtown Easide of Vancouver at 2pm to distribute the items to people and families in need.

2012 Gala Update: Thanks to our entertainment committee we have been able to secure the hilarious comedic stylings of Mr. Dan Nainan, currently on tour with Russell Peters.

Community media and business sponsorships so far are really creating a buzz and there are some awesome opportunities to win great prizes at the door or during our now famous dance-competitions.

DJ Khanvict will keep the party bouncing late into the night, so if you are looking to support an organization that does great work in your community, while having a lot of fun this New Year’s Eve, please visit our donate page to buy your tickets today or contact us on Facebook or call 604-613-6858 and reserve your tickets right now.

Your participation in this event will ensure that Mannkind can continue its mission to fight poverty, advance music and arts education, expand city green-spaces and improve care facilities for orphan children around the world.

I look forward to seeing you there!