With the Vancouver Canary Derby only 25 days away our fundraising has been kicked into high gear.  We’re cranking it up this week by throwing a birthday party that’s not all about us.  Webnames.ca is also using our 10 . . . → Read More: Webnames.ca Turns 10!]]> We’re Celebrating 10 Years in Business By Fundraising for Early Stage Cancer Detection

With the Vancouver Canary Derby only 25 days away our fundraising has been kicked into high gear.  We’re cranking it up this week by throwing a birthday party that’s not all about us.  Webnames.ca is also using our 10 Year Anniversary Party to raise some needed funds for the Canary Foundation.

We’re throwing a sweet party next week! We have everything from beer and wine sponsored by the Mark Anthony Group and great food by Tommy’s Catering to a dance floor with a live DJ and photo booth.  Every guest will receive a free drink ticket and additional bevvies can be purchased for $5 with all proceeds going to the cause. 

And I haven’t even started taking about the draw prizes yet …

Fun, Fundraising & Prizes Galore

We are thankful and appreciative of the amazing donations we have received from many Vancouver businesses, from yoga studios to designer hotels and our very own BC Lions. The fundraising draws we have concocted will be a tonne of fun! There are great prizes to be won whether you want tickets to the game, a romantic night on the town or a spa day with your girlfriends!

Tickets will range from $5 to $20 and there are over 60 prizes to be won. And of course, all proceeds will go to the Canary Foundation.

Here’s just a sample: yoga studio passes, premium wine, fine cheeses, BC Lions tickets, gift certificates for restaurants, spas and coffee shops, jewelry and watches, plus much, much more!
 

Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm MC’d by Blenz’s own George Moen.
With a Special Toast at 8pm with Cybele Negris, Steve Smith, Angus Livingstone, and Byron Holland

Where: Harrison Galleries, 901 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC  (click here for directions)

If you received and invitation and are not able to make the event but still wish to support this fantastic cause, simply click here to donate online (All donors will receive a tax receipt for your donation).

We would not be able to do this without the help of our wonderful event sponsors, donors and Canary Derby supporters: CIRA, Blenz Coffee, Mark Anthony Group, Turning Point Brewery, Amuse Consulting, Travelling Eye Photography, Rami Films, October 17 Media , Miles Employment, McNeill Nakamoto, F5 Expo, E-xact Transactions, Janice Tomich Calculated Presentations, Lolo Jewelry, Yyoga, Cactus Club Cafe, Le Petit Spa, Cookies of Course, Semperviva Yoga, Brioche, Kylie Hall RMT, BC Lions, Listel Hotel, Blo Bar, Bombay Brow Bar, FWE BC, Borden Ladner Gervais, Benton Brothers Cheese, Mio Watches , BFF Make-Up and Silk Concept. Thank you all!! 

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Before googling how to build your dream soapbox car, . . . → Read More: How to Build the (Derby) Car of your Dreams]]> Building the car of your dreams (or mine) can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be.  As a member of the Webnames.ca Canary Derby soapbox car and crew pit team, I’m here to help make it a little easier for you.

Before googling how to build your dream soapbox car, pick your winning team. An ideal team should consist of about 4-5 people. When a team has too many people decisions never get made and car pieces will lay around collecting dust as arguments ensue; when a team has too few people the chances of you running out of time increases significantly.  Pick a team that has the skills you need, since this is a serious sporting event! Look for people with the right mindset (they have to want to work hard to play hard). Figure out who is the best suited to a specific task – can they weld? If they can’t, sorry, they aren’t touching the car.

Next up, choose your model. There are plenty of online stores from which you can choose your dream template (see below). Most car kits come as a white, giving you the freedom to decorate your new ride however you desire.  My personal favorite is the Scottie Masters Car from SoapBoxRacing.com painted some kind of metallic, it looks speedy and probably has the ability to blind my competition come race day (fingers crossed for sun).

After you’ve placed the order, you’re going to need to create some space for your team to get to work. These things don’t come assembled, so you’re going to want to make sure you have the room to layout all of you’re new parts,  not to mention assemble the vehicle and be able to move it from the room you built it in to the race.  Make a plan for assembly and put somebody in charge of following the rules – the race officials probably won’t allow for the fireworks you saved from last Halloween to be attached to your vehicle, no matter how awesome it would look. 

Set up a deadline for your car’s completion. Have a plan ready. Read the instructions first, and as many times as necessary to thoroughly understand them. Assign people responsibilities regarding the car’s assembly and the actual race day.  Make sure that everyone on your team gets to take part in both the labour and the glory.  A list needs to be made so nothing is forgotten – remember the lunch won’t make itself, nor will the beer chill itself.

Now that you are ready to get started, here are my top five things to keep in mind when trying to build a faster car:

1.  Keep your wheels and axis straight
   Crooked axles will make your car to ride the center guide rail, or will cause the wheels to slide in addition to rolling, causing more friction, slowing you down.
2. Paint early and paint a lot
   Paints and finishes that haven’t cured completely tend to be slightly tacky, and then stick to the wheels and slow the car down.
3. Weight Your Car Well
   Heavier = Faster. Remember to weight the back- the front needs to be light and able to maneuver easily
4. Drop a Wheel (4 to 3)
   Less is more. Meaning less friction means more speed.
5. Paint it Red
   Not only is it the Webnames.ca colour of choice, but a red car is definitely more visible then a blue one going across the finish line

Here’s a few resources I’ve relied on in helping to make this years car run smoothly:

Where to buy your wheels

Tips and tricks for building a fast car

Where you can register for the Canary Derby in Vancouver, BC 

Where you can donate to the Webnames.ca Inc Team

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The SoapBox Derby is built on a great tradition. It’s been called “The Greatest Amateur Racing Event in the World”, “The Gravity Grand Prix”, among many other euphemistic titles.

It is a tradition built on the blood, sweat and tears of children whose dreams of bonding with their parents over a . . . → Read More: The Derby- A Short History]]>

The SoapBox Derby is built on a great tradition. It’s been called “The Greatest Amateur Racing Event in the World”, “The Gravity Grand Prix”, among many other euphemistic titles.

It is a tradition built on the blood, sweat and tears of children whose dreams of bonding with their parents over a fun project quickly turned ugly as hammers hit fingers and Dad said “No” to the Barbie pink themed car.

Source

Billy Cart, Soapbox Car, Buggy, Trolley, Cart, Bogie, Cartie, Guider. Call it what you want, we’re just going to race one.

The SoapBox Car (AKA any of the above) is a motor-less car that holds a small driver (usually a child, but in our case the tiniest member on staff) that is built for the mean streets of recreation and fundraising.  They are mostly raced down hill, allowing for gravity to carry them upwards of 45km/h.  Although these racing machines were once built from wooden soap and orange crates, contemporary soapbox cars are made up of materials like aluminum and fiberglass, shaving minutes off race times.

The Soap Box Derby wasn’t much to talk about until Myron Scott, photographer for the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, did a story on a race of “boy-built cars”.  After falling in love with the concept, he got hold of the copyright and popularized the idea. Scott hosted races across every state, sending each winner to Dayton for the big event: The All American Soap Box Derby (AASBD).

Since the birth of the event, derbies have continued to gain popularity and are now an international phenomenon. Red Bull brought the Derby to the masses, holding events at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the United Kingdom and in cities across the USA between 2000 and 2009; now the Canary Foundation brought the tradition to our home turf, Vancouver and Victoria.

It’s that time, time to get involved; if not for the sake of old memories, for the sake of new ones.  The Canary Foundation needs your help to fund their quest to identify cancer early through a simple blood test.

Get out the tool kit people. It’s time to start building.

Next post: How to build the car of your dreams (Derby Style).

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It’s going to be our second year in a row teaming up with Webnames.ca in support of the Canary Derby and it definitely won’t be our last. Like many people, we’ve lost friends and family to cancer and if you know us at all, you know we can’t just sit . . . → Read More: Open House and Book Sale for Canary Derby on July 20 & 21]]> By October 17  Media

It’s going to be our second year in a row teaming up with Webnames.ca in support of the Canary Derby and it definitely won’t be our last. Like many people, we’ve lost friends and family to cancer and if you know us at all, you know we can’t just sit down without a fight. Out of all the organizations out there who work to fight the disease, we relate best to the Canary Foundation. Early detection and research is so important! The Canary Derby is a fun way to help make a difference with other tech companies in Vancouver.

More money must be raised! That’s why we are starting our fundraising early this year with an upcoming Book Sale to coincide with our Open House office-warming party.

A plethora of used and new books (mostly used) are on offer, along with refreshments and a raffle draw. Come dive into our literary treasure trove.

The Event Low Down

Where: Suite #206, 119 West Pender Street (between Beatty & Abbott)

When: Tuesday & Wednesday, July 20 & 21st, 3:00 to 6:00pm

Thank you to the staff at Chapters Granville & Broadway, Characters Fine Books and Coffee, Kestrel Books, Tanglewood Books, Oscar’s Art Books and many more generous friends for their kind donations!

We hope you’ll be able to drop by! Pop in for 10 minutes to check out the new space, or stay for awhile to mingle, chat and peruse the books.

In addition, if you’re thinking about getting those pesky website updates finished this summer and you’d like to build some good karma at the same time, October 17 Media is extending our “web maintenance fundraising” deadline until July 31st. 15% of all website maintenance fees billed until then will be donated directly to the Canary Derby.

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They are not alone in this . . . → Read More: A Winning Day at the Canary Derby]]> Deer Lake Park, Burnaby, BC. Imagine a lush green lakeside park, with canoes, pedal boats and kayaks. It is Saturday, the sun is out, there are children everywhere laughing and playing. They are greeted by Super Mario, Princess Peach and WaLuigi, who are out to find coins for the Canary Foundation.

They are not alone in this mad race.  Our Webnames.ca team  in our bright red t-shirts and car gave quite the competition, and it was all in great fun. Fearless Meryll and Matthieu raced our car to a third place finish, but in the end everybody won!  The main purpose was to raise money for early cancer detection, research and awareness.  The Vancouver Canary Derby raised $113,000 and the Victoria race netted $129,000, with 100% of the funds going directly to the cause.

Webnames.ca was the top fundraiser for the second year in a row. Spearheaded by our COO, Cybele Negris, the team pulled together for a delicious and extremely successful bake sale.

As for the race winners: Aquatic Informatics received the trophy for CanarySpeed.  They were so fast I never even saw them go by.

The 6S Marketing – Team Mario Cart won the well deserved CanaryStyle Award.  And wow were they styling!  They even threw banana peels on the road.

Poor Team Cisco got the Bent Wheel award.  We all covered our eyes when his crash happened.  With his arm in a sling, he looked proud while he smiled. All in a day’s work for an amazing cause.

Finally there was the Volunteer of Year Trophy that went to Cybele Negris.  She brought a tonne of attention to the cause and helped to pull the event together in an amazing way.

It was nice to see old friends out like Wired Woman and the Big Green, and awesome to see new faces joining the crowd.  Everywhere was a splash of yellow t-shirts, as the volunteers ran around making sure everyone was attended to and safe.  I made a quick visit to the bouncy castle with my friends between races – no sign of Bowser which is always a good thing.

With a lot of effort, from a lot of generous and dedicated people, we are certain to make headway in defeating our foe.

You can find more information, photos, and even get involved right here on the Canary Derby website: http://www.canaryfoundation.org/canaryderby/vancouver.asp.

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