Dunbar Community Patrol Celebrates 10 Years

Each year the Dunbar Community Patrol (DCP) holds a social night to thank our patrollers for volunteering their time to help keep our neighbourhood safe. This year’s event, held on February 12, 2015 at St. George’s Senior School, was extra special as it was our 10th Anniversary Celebration.

Many thanks to St. George’s who generously donated the rental of their spectacular Lower Great Hall and sound system for our party and to everyone who donated money via the Dunbar Neighbours email list. In attendance were patrollers and spouses, Vancouver police officers, and board members of the Dunbar Residents’ Association. The VPD was represented by Inspector Steve Eely, Sergeant Joe Chu, Constable David Krenz and Leah Marlay of Block Watch, and Tony Bulic of the KOM Community Policing Centre. Members of the DRA who attended included President Colleen McGuinness, Jan Alexander, Trusha Desai, Robert Murray, Bill Rapanos and Andrea Sara.

The program began with greetings and a brief history of the DCP by founder and Chairperson, Linda MacAdam. Prizes were then awarded to patrollers for outstanding volunteer service including Certificates of Appreciation for the twelve patrollers who have served all 10 years. This was followed by a brief presentation on Block Watch by Constable David Krenz and Leah Marlay. Inspector Steve Eely and the other VPD officers then answered questions from the audience. At the end of the evening Constable Krenz presented a VPD Certificate of Appreciation to founder MacAdam and a Certificate of Recognition to the DCP. Also presented to our patrollers were Community Policing pins from the VPD.

Adding to the evening’s festivities were the many wonderful prizes donated by our Dunbar businesses, most of which were patroller awards. There were also door prizes for patrollers, spouses, and DRA board members.

Sincere thanks to all the businesses and individuals who kindly and generously donated prizes: Stong’s Market (grand prize), Vibes Fitness, Dunbar Theatre, K & K Pet Foods, Dunbar Lumber, Blight’s Home Hardware,

Hair by Dwayne, Domino’s Pizza, IGA MarketPlace, Cheshire Cheese Inn, Pacific Spirits Liquor Store, Shoppers Drug Mart, Christina’s Flower Shop, Gardenia Florist, La Notte Ristorante Italiano, Village VQA Wines, Money’s Dry Cleaning, Moki’s Pizza, Handi Cuisine of India, Butter Baked Goods & Cafe, Digital Photo Station, Dunbar Dairy Queen, Weigh To Go Bulk Foods, Mexicali Restaurant, Beantown Coffee House, Kokopelli Cafe, Dunbar 1 Hr Cleaners, Donald Burton, Susan Chapman, Meredith Kimball, and Colleen McGuinness.

Thanks also to Melissa Gaudiel of St. George’s for catering the event. The finger food was supplemented by a special 10th Anniversary cake to celebrate the occasion. The big surprise of the evening was the unveiling of DCP tee shirts donated by Cal Deacon of Action Athletics Wear for each patroller. Action Athletics Wear and Stong’s Market are co-sponsors of our volunteer organization without whom we wouldn’t have vests, caps or tee shirts!

The Dunbar Community Patrol was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Dunbar Residents’ Association. We are a group of Dunbar residents who volunteer each month to conduct walk or bike patrols and serve as extra eyes and ears for the Vancouver Police.

If you are interested in learning more or volunteering you can leave a phone message at 604-222-9824, send an e-mail message to dcp-info@dunbar-vancouver.org or visit our webpage at www.dunbar-vancouver.org.