Nile Night raises $25,000 for skills lab

Jane Mortifee sings at A Night on the Nile

CNIS fundraiser A Night on the Nile, held in Vancouver on June 11, raised $25,000 towards a surgical skills teaching lab in Moshi, Tanzania. The popular event was filled to the brim and had a waiting list of local supporters hoping to attend, so we suggest all to get your tickets early next year!

South African born Canadian singer Jane Mortifee, accompanied by Bill Sample, gave a powerful performance, while local belly dancing troupe Hips Can Sway allured with tantalizing moves and costumes. Our wonderful MC, Bev McEwan, not only travelled down from Invermere, but brought with her half a dozen keen volunteers from David Thompson Secondary school! Drs. Ronald Lett and Jan Christilaw spoke on behalf of CNIS, convincing the attendees to line up to buy ‘bricks’ for the lab.

We would like to thank the more than 50 volunteers that helped prepare and host the event, the ca 60 local companies that donated to the silent auction and the more than 30 film companies and other businesses that sponsored the event with financial and in-kind services. Our special thanks goes to Truffles Fine Foods for cooking for more than 180 people, Tivoli Motion Picture Caterer for donating the food, David at West Restaurant for making us yet another original martini and Brian at Robert Held Glass for lending us his King Tut thrones and soldiers (!)

We will continue to raise funds until we have reached $40,000 to build our Moshi surgical skills teaching lab. Please support the lab by purchasing a ‘brick’.

Thank you to all for supporting our important cause. We hope to see you next year at A Night at the Kasbah on Friday May 6th, 2011!