Drinking gin, partying like it’s 1929 and raising money for good causes.
That was the basis of Prince George’s first-ever Gin Blossom: A Speakeasy night hosted at Theatre NorthWest last week and those in attendance helped raise at least $700 for local charities in the city.
The event was in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern BC (BIGSNBC) and featured five ‘celebrity’ bartenders tasked to create a concoction for guests to vote and select a winner.
Haylee Seiter won the competition, while Wayne Carrasco was the first runner-up.
“I was really proud to be a part of this event,” said Seiter to PrinceGeorgeMatters, who, along with her bartending partner, is donating $500 to the BC Burn Fund.
“One of the cool things the BC Burn Fund does is ‘Burn Camp for Kids.’ So this is a really neat camp where basically kids who are burn-survivors get to come together, share experiences, they get to be around other kids that have suffered burns and it kind of helps them make them feel normal.”
The Northern Health communications advisor made, what she and her partner called, the ‘Orange Jingle,’ a drink she believes resonated with the theme of the evening.
“It was a cocktail that was rosemary simple syrup-based and we also had blood orange slices in it, to give it a citrus flavour, and we just kept it simple like that and let the gin shine through. [...] If anyone missed out, it was super fun. The 1920s is always a really fun era to dress up with the costumes, the hair, the make-up and all that for guys and girls.”
Carrasco, a videographer with Splash Media, earned $200 in winnings.
“Being from Toronto, it was actually fantastic to see Prince George do an event like this and having the community come out to support all the charities involved,” he explained, who will donate the funds to the Prince George Animal Rescue.
After becoming a dog owner himself, he says the non-profit was fitting on a personal level.
“I’m a huge animal lover, and it’s changed my life. The work they do is incredible and I would love to keep contributing to the amazing work they do. I think its necessary for people to help adopt animals too.”
Carrasco even put his showman’s cap on when he and his bartending partner created ‘The Astaire’ as a tribute to his hero Fred Astaire and an old profession from the 1920s era.
“I was a travelling salesman, you know, those old school people that’d say ‘This tonic can make your hair grow back.’ So my partner, Sydney, her specialty is gin, so she mixed sourpuss, pineapple juice, soda water and gin, and it actually went over really well.”
Both Seiter and Carrasco say they have connections with BIGSNBC, which is how they were initially asked to get involved in the Gin Blossom Speakeasy.
The other guest bartenders were Connor Hutchinson (101.3 The River), Camille MacDonald (Pop Media), and Tyson Witala (Royal LaPage Realty).
Theatre NorthWest’s Marnie Hamagami says a second annual Gin Blossom night is in the works for 2021 with a date to be confirmed in the months ahead.
Final numbers from the funds raised are still being counted.
