We are people from all walks of life and proud citizens of Vancouver who are deeply committed to ensuring that every person in the City, no matter how diminished their circumstances, has a place to call home.

We are a registered Non-Profit Society, known as The Gratitude Week to End Homelessness Foundation, for the sole purpose of giving tax receipts for donations. We are committed to ensure that we do not grow into a permanent organization. Our goal is to help people move off the streets and into a place they can call home. Gratitude Week will then no longer need to exist. These are some of the people involved in Gratitude Week.

Ron Josephson
Ron is the Founder and Chair of Gratitude Week.  In his regular life, he is a Barrister practicing law in the City of Vancouver. His involvement in projects such as the Gratitude Week goes back to when he was a student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and he chaired a student organization that raised funds to help the underprivileged black community in Cape Town. In recent years, Ron founded the Canada-China Lawyers Foundation, which brings together leading lawyers from Canada and China, to learn from another about their respective legal systems and builds bridges between the lawyers from these two countries. Being grateful for his life in Vancouver and wanting to do something to help end the current Vancouver homelessness crisis, Ron founded The Gratitude Week to End Homelessness Foundation and has brought people together to make a positive difference in the lives of those less fortunate in our city.

Lara Holte
Lara is the Executive Director of Gratitude Week.  She has been an integral part of the Vancouver hospitality industry over the past nine years; her most recent role as Managing Partner with Earls Restaurants. Lara brings to Gratitude Week expertise in operations management, event planning and execution and a passion for helping people. She is a well travelled individual who has lived and worked internationally, including England, the Philippines, Taiwan, and most recently Warsaw, Poland where she volunteered her time teaching English at the Piaseczno Girls' Orphanage. Lara holds a BSc in Biology from Trinity Western University.

Darrell Kopke
Darrell is considered one of the founding members of lululemon athletica, a Vancouver-based yoga-inspired athletic apparel retailer where he served as the original General Manager and most recently Managing Director Asia Pacific. He oversaw expansion from one store in Vancouver to 75 internationally and was a key contributor to its well renowned corporate culture of goal setting and personal responsibility. Darrell has a BComm in Marketing from Concordia University in Montreal and an MBA in Supply Chain Management from the University of British Columbia and in 2006 was named to Vancouver's Top 40 under 40 by Business in Vancouver newspaper. He is most passionate about his wife, Maria, and their two children.

Rik Klingle-Watt
With a colourful career that has included stints as a writer, art director, designer and fishpacker, Rik brings a wealth of creative experience to Gratitude Week. A former award-winning Creative Director, he went on to open Blu Concept, his own creative consultancy with a mandate to create socially responsible work. Highlights included a ground-breaking creative project on homelessness for the United Nations World Urban Forum and Hope in Shadows, a unique program making a difference in the lives of people living in Canada's poorest postal code.
Rik has won over 100 awards from local, national and international creative competitions and currently works as an independent creative consultant in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Pia Shandel
Pia has been a pioneering member of the Vancouver arts and media community for many years. Beginning as an actor on most of the local stages and in some of the first movies ever made in B.C., Pia went on to become an integral part of the first locally owned and operated private television station CKVU13, working with renowned television and film artist Daryl Duke. In Toronto, she worked with director Norman Jewison at the Canadian Centre for Film Development, and collaborated with media guru Moses Znaimer on television license applications for western Canada. Upon returning to Vancouver, Pia started a ten-year stint as a provocative talk radio host, as well as serving as Political Specialist for CHUM TV in Victoria. She has written features for magazines and newspapers across Canada and in China, and has served on many Arts and Culture volunteer Boards over the years, most recently as Chair Person of The Dance Centre.
 
Tom Jones
Tom is not related to the singer Tom Jones, and he does not sing...Before getting involved in Real Estate, Tom spent over 25 years in the music industry. He was primarily involved in sales, marketing and management, and the parallels of sharing a name and an industry with a famous singer was more than enough to leverage gentle ribbing, silly misunderstandings and above all, humour from his colleagues.  Transferring the skills he developed in the music industry to a career in Real Estate has helped him become a skilled and efficient realtor. Having a name that is hard to forget has made him a busy realtor. He has a simple philosophy when he is working with his clients to purchase or sell a home . . . Passion, Commitment, Perseverance .  He brings all of that to Gratitude Week.

Annette Hurd
Annette has been involved with events and non profit fundraisers for the better part of the last 15 years. For 9 years, she was the Logistics Manager for the Lights of Hope project at St. Paul’s Hospital and was instrumental in growing this incredible fundraising display from a hospital event to a community event. The success of this event which has raised over10 million dollars for the hospital speaks for itself. Annette demonstrates great passion and efficiency as well as the all important willingness to roll up her sleeves and do whatever is necessary to ensure the success of a project. She has been involved in a variety of projects and spent 5 years as Tournament Director for BC Women’s Hospital “Birdies for Babies Golf Tournament” and prior to throwing her hat into the fundraising/special event ring, she has fond memories of her 15 year career with CP Air/Canadian Airlines in their reservations/training and customer service departments.

Jeff Goldberg
Jeff was born and raised, lived, and worked, in Vancouver all his life. He is active in and has held leadership roles with The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. He runs a business in Surrey that makes personalized hearing protection devices for workers in noisy industries. His family business, "Max Goldberg Plumbing free parking in the rear" was at 424 Main Street from 1948 until 1989. He spent most Saturday afternoons there as a child and teenager and watched the deterioration in the Downtown East Side first hand. He has always wanted to do something to help but never had a vehicle to do something about it until now.

Dr. Diane McIntosh
Diane is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, and has a private practice and is involved in Clinical Research. Diane is also a Consultant Psychiatrist for the Vancouver Association of Survivors of Torture.
Diane relocated to Vancouver from Halifax, Nova Scotia five years ago, and has developed a private practice while also undertaking clinical research at her office in downtown Vancouver. She is the author of several publications, in peer reviewed journals, as well as chapter and book reviews and clinical guidelines. She is active in presenting and teaching to many different groups: patients, students and physicians, on a local and national level. Her areas of interest are the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, with a focus on psychopharmacology and neurobiology.

Marlie Oden
Marlie was born and raised in Edmonton, In 1980 Marlie moved to Vancouver to join McKim Advertising as a vice-president. After 12 fun years she left and started Bridge Communications. She is grateful to have a wonderful husband and two healthy children. She believes that strong families are vital for healthy/safe communities and that sometimes your family in not made up of relatives. Marlie has sat as a part-time Board member for the National Parole Board and the BC Borstal Society (Halfway Houses). She currently sits on the Board of Telefilm Canada. She is also president of the board of Vancouver Theatresports.

Bonnie Allan
Bonnie has been a partner at Bridge Communications for the past 10 years, bringing her expertise and experience in marketing, sales and communications and public relations to the arts, community projects, special events, and fundraising projects. A passionate supporter of the arts, Bonnie has served on the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance and currently is a member of the Board of Vancouver Theatresports League. She is a long time volunteer and mentor to a women’s health organization and is pleased for the opportunity to be part of Gratitude Week.

Ross Huguet
Ross Huguet is a leader in Digital Content Creation.  His experience is in creating original content designed to motivate action from the viewer and has 25 years as a marketing content producer.  He is a specialist in the development of digital marketing content including Television and Radio commercials, web video and corporate video.  Ross’ company GO2 Productions supplies public, private and charitable organizations with engaging digital content utilizing the latest technology.

Colette Gunson
Colette Gunson is a Vancouver-based communications professional specializing in grassroots publicity and social media campaigns. Combining her interests in documentary film and social issue communications, Colette played an key role in the grassroots marketing of Canada's highest grossing documentary, The Corporation. She is a Board Member and the Outreach Coordinator for Projecting Change, an annual social and environmental film festival that combines engaging films with inspiring speakers to increase awareness and promote positive change within the local community. Colette holds a B.A. in Communications from Simon Fraser University and is an enthusiastic supporter of Vancouver arts and culture.


Heather Briggs
Heather Briggs is the Creative Director and Owner of Buddha Branding, a boutique agency that provides premium graphic design, branding, and marketing services to “socially-conscious” brands in the fashion, wellness and non-profit industries.  She has two main passions in life…great design and making the world a better place.  She has worked with companies such as lululemon, Mountain Equipment Co-op, and Lela Designs, to help reinforce their brand messaging through authentic and sustainable design principles.  She was also one of the founders of the Red Dot Campaign, an anti–junk mail campaign aimed to fight against unnecessary printing and reducing waste in Direct Mail advertising.  Most recently, she worked with Adoptive Families of BC to help brand their Jazz in the Park 5 event that raised over $180,000.

Christie McCullough
Christie is born and raised in Vancouver and recently graduated from the Sauder School of Business with a Master of Management degree.  With continuing interest in her undergrad, Classical Studies, Christie just ventured to Europe to spend time exploring Greece, Rome and Western Europe.  Christie has always had a passion for helping people and she is involved in the planning and organization of Gratitude Week give back to those less fortunate.

Alexander Angus
Since 1983, he has been a Barrister practicing in Vancouver.  Before Gratitude Week, he was involved in a number of charitable causes.  He is particularly passionate about Gratitude Week because it is a unique way for ordinary people to do concrete things directly to help end homelessness in Vancouver now.  Sandy is a Director of the Gratitude Week to End Homelessness Foundation.

Kari Kylo
One of Kari’s greatest passions is creating the ultimate marketing plan.  With over 14 years of marketing experience, Kari enjoys building a rock-solid marketing program, matching it to a plan of attack and observing the results.  Since January 2007, she has owned and managed SOMA Concepts & Solutions, serving clients such as BC Hydro and HSBC Celebration of Lights.  As the Marketing Manager for Brian Jessel BMW from 2000 to 2006, Kari developed and managed programs that helped the company grow to become the top-selling BMW dealership in Canada.
 
Kari now brings her years of experience, direction and strategy to her role as a Director of the Gratitude Week to End Homelessness Foundation.