The Salvation Army Ridge Meadows Ministries is selling tickets for its 13th annual Dignity Breakfast fundraiser.
The event is coming up on Nov. 26, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the South Bonson Community Centre (10932 Barnston View Rd.) in Pitt Meadows. Doors open at 7:30 a.m., and the program starts at 8 a.m.
The keynote speaker this year will be Lenore Rattray, who is the survivor of kidnapping and assault. She was taken at gunpoint from the Vancouver store where she worked, and held captive in the woods for eight days. Thirty years later, she still deals with the fallout.
Rattray is passionate about sharing her personal story of living with trauma and post traumatic stress disorder. Her mission is to help others understand trauma, to help them be hopeful, and see that post-traumatic growth is possible. She hosts a podcast “Stand Up Eight” which relates true crime from a survivor’s perspective. The title of her podcast comes from a Japanese proverb “Nana korobi ya oki” or “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
The Dignity Breakfast is one of the signature events for Maple Ridge’s Sally Ann after 12 years of bringing the community together, to celebrate the work done by the local charity on the eve of the Christmas season.
In 2024, they served Ridge Meadows in these ways:
• Sent over 40 vulnerable children to a week at camp on the Sunshine Coast.
• Distributed over 500 Back to School supply packs to students in SD42.
• Provided over 400 individuals with Christmas gifts and hampers.
• Provided 35,000 school lunches to elementary students in SD42.
• Served over 53,400 meals to community members.
• Handed out over 1650 Emergency food hampers.
• Sent 65 clients to treatment or to housing.
• Provided 18,700 shelter bed nights.
For information about the Dignity Breakfast, or to sponsor the event, see ridgemeadowssa.ca, or email amelia.norrie@salvationarmy.ca. Tickets are available at eventbrite.ca.