Looking forward to longer days....although not looking forward to losing an hour of sleep tonight!

Don't forget to set your clocks an hour ahead before you go to sleep tonight. 

Happy International Women's Day 2013 from all 3 of us at the Bettina Reid Group!

Very proud to be a business woman, mother of 2 beautiful young women, wife, friend, daughter, niece, aunt, grand-daughter.... Today is a day to honour all the women in our lives young and old!

Canada's theme for International Women's Day 2013 is:

Working Together: Engaging Men to End Violence against Women.

Give the women in your life a hug and let them know you care! 

As a big supporter of Canuck Place Children's Hospice through our HomeLife Charity Golf Classic, when I came across the Vancouver Lego Games also supporting Canuck Place I knew I had to blog about it. :)

It sounds like a lot of fun for the young and young at heart!

The Lego building block as we know it has been a staple in children's lives since 1958. 

A few students at UBC decided to put together the Vancouver Lego Games for a class project and will be hosting the World's largest charity lego building event for all ages on April 28th from 2-4pm.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Vancouver Lego Games

I found out about this event in one of my favourite blogs "The Fraser Valley Pulse" and the founder and editor herself is not only offering a chance to win free tickets but is also offering people a chance to showcase their unique lego creations. Check out her blog for details and to see how to enter to win tickets to the event.

The Fraser Valley Pulse
 

Kara

Like heat, water and air conditioning, insurance is a home expense you have some degree of control over. In fact, there are ways to reduce your insurance costs by as much as 20%.

The thing to keep in mind is that insurance companies will often reward you – in the form of lower rates – when you do something to reduce the risk of damage to your property. That's why you can often get a discount when you install smoke detectors on all floors. Other discounts may be available if you get better door locks, an alarm system, upgraded wiring, and so forth.

Contact your insurance company and ask how you can lower your insurance costs. Sometimes just a few minor changes can save you a bundle.

Even if you missed out on the 20 free trips to cross the Port Mann bridge, it is still beneficial to sign up your vehicles with TReO. As long as you have registered for your TreO by February 28th you will continue to receive the reduced rate of $1.50 each time you travel across the Port Mann bridge until December of this year. Be sure to register at the following link if you haven`t yet:

TReO

Homelessness is a major problem in our society no matter where you live across Canada. 

"The Coldest Night of the Year" a 5 and 10km walk that will be held tomorrow evening in Surrey, starts off and ends at the Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre 13458 107th avenue. Regsitration opens at 4pm and walkers start the walk at 5pm and closes at 8pm.

The idea behind the walk is to give people a small glimpse of what a homeless person goes through on a daily basis by participating in a walk that is considered the "Coldest Night of the Year".

The Walk first began in Toronto, Kitchener and Waterloo back in 2011 and grew to 18 cities in 2012. Surrey is hosting the 1st ever "Coldest Night of the Year Walk" and has become the 1st city in Metro Vancouver to join approximately 40 cities across Canada in the walk this year. 

The Surrey Urban Mission is the perfect partner to spearhead this event. They are a local organization that offers a variety of programs and resources to the homeless in our community. The high schools in their volunteer initiatives have helped out the Surrey Urban Mission and will have volunteers there tomorrow evening helping out. What a great way to give back and have a positive impact on hundreds of lives.

For more information and to see if there is a  walk in your community visit the following link:

Coldest Night of the Year!  

Cloverdale residents will finally get a new high school in 2016. A decision by the provincial government that is long overdue. From the time both of my girls started high school, with one attending Clayton Heights Secondary and the other attending Lord Tweedsmuir they have been extremely overcrowded. So much so that when applying to attend from out of the school boundary they try and trade off with each other to help each other out. Clayton will trade one student for another from Tweedsmuir.

This year my eldest attends Clayton Heights and she has mentioned it's been the worst yet for overcrowding with barely enough room to walk through the halls between classes because the halls are jam packed with students. 

The government also plans on purchasing land for another needed elementary school in the Clayton area as well as another elementary school and long overdue high school in South Surrey.

To read more about the planned schools click the following link:

 http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2013/02/government-announces-new-secondary-school-for-surrey.html

Happy National Flag Day, Canada! 

National Flag Day in Canada has been recognized since February 15th, 1996, marking the day when the red and white flag was first raised over Parliament Hill in Ottawa back on the same day in 1965. Our National Flag of Canada turns 48 today and proud Canadians fly the flag across the country and around the world.

Happy National Flag Day, Canada! 

Happy Valentine's Day from all of us at the Bettina Reid Group.

We hope you spent your Valentine's Day with the ones you love.