The Cinderella Project, a volunteer-based charity, donates its funds to underprivileged students throughout the Lower Mainland so that they can celebrate their graduation in a new outfit.

The charity also hands out bursaries, which is what PR student Daniela Vanderliek said her class is raising funds for.

The event, titled Once Upon a Wine, will be held at the False Creek Yacht Club from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Feb. 17, and will include live music, a silent auction, and appetizers.

Information on ticket sales will be announced shortly on Kwantlen.ca.

Kwantlen's Mike Davis (11) and Omid Davani (21), battle to score for the Eagles. (Rachelle Ashe photo

Full-on body-checks, fouls galore and a neck-and-neck race on the scoreboard made for an intense final game for the Kwantlen Eagles, who bested the Vancouver University Island Mariners 92-86, at the Douglas College basketball tournament that ran from Oct.17-19.

Eagle’s head coach Bernie Love was more than pleased. “This is the first time we’ve actually played basketball all year,” he said. “We came up, we scored. We haven’t scored more than 73 points and we scored 92 today.”

Trying to pinpoint problem areas in previous games, Love watched the team’s game tapes and finally came to a conclusion. “Today we shot the basketball — rest of the weekend we would never shot it. We’d be wide open … we were turnin’ the ball over carelessly.”<

Love commends his players for putting their full effort into Sunday’s game. “All the guys played well,” said Love. “Today, Omid (Davani) was fantastic. He had 28 points; he had nine rebounds; he had four assists.”

Davani began to emerge from the blur of red jerseys when he took his third free-throw at the end of the second qurater, which helped bumped the Eagles (who had been lagging a few points behind since the end of the first period), past VIU by a score of 39-34.

Kwantlen Eagles' Nick Lafleur (9), propels the ball towards the basket, during the final tournament game on Sunday, Oct. 19. (Rachelle Ashe Photo)

The Mariners lagged by a steady 10 points until the final quarter when, at two and a half minutes left, with a score of 88-76, the Eagles started to rack up fouls and the Mariners cashed in effortless free-throws.

With 47 seconds left on the clock, the Mariners had closed the gap considerably and VIU’s Jacob Thom smoothly stole ball from Davani and sank it, closing the score to 89-86 Eagles.

With frequent glances at the score clock, and needless passes, the Eagles were visibly biding their time, as the clock fell under half a minute.

Davani was awarded three free-throw shots, virtually in a row, bringing their score up by three points. The Mariners then took control, and as both teams flew down the court, Kwantlen’s Brighton Gbarazia managed to wrench the ball free from his opponent. With four seconds left, his coach and team members yelled for him to hold onto it as the game slowed to a stop and the timer buzzed.

Arioso Strings performs at Kwantlen's inaugeration ceremony concert held at the Richmond campus on Oct. 3. L-R: Stephanie Lowe; Paul Luongo; Kevin Young (extra member for special events); Jinhee Park; Eva Ying. (Rachelle Ashe photo)

Park was 19 when she began playing the violin and now, at 26, she is taking music courses at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, has recently learned the viola, and has started a string ensemble with a group of her classmates.

Arioso Strings was formed in January as a way to have some fun while playing the quartet music that Park had been collecting. The other members of Arioso Strings are Paul Luongo (violin), Stephanie Lowe (violin and vocals), and Eva Ying (cello).

 The quartet’s member’s other musical talents include piano, harp, guitar, ukulele and drums.

 Since January, Arioso Strings have performed at over 20 events, many of which have been Kwantlen-related.

They are surprised by how well everything has fallen into place, said Park.

“It’s pretty neat, because if we play one event and all the faculty members are there, then they ask who we are, and whenever they have events, they hire us.”

 The quartet’s latest performance was a dinner reception at Kwantlen’s inauguration ceremony, held at the Richmond campus on Oct. 3. Hours before Arioso String’s music began to waft throughout the university’s hallways, the group clustered into a small room to practice their instruments. None of them appeared nervous, and Park admited that they love performing.

That easy-going attitude coincides with the original idea behind the ensemble.

“We just did it because we love music,” said Park. “We just thought, like, ‘Oh this might be fun.’”

With regards to Arioso Strings’ hopes for the future, Park doesn’t anticipate anything too grand.

“I think as long as we have fun playing together, you know occasionally get together …that’s our hope.”

David Atkinson and Arvinder Bubber stood proudly in flowing robes as they were inaugurated into their new leadership roles during a ceremony at Kwantlen Polytechnic University on Oct. 3.

The ceremony was held at the Surrey campus, and began with a march-in of Kwantlen leaders, board members and prominent members of the community, such as Mary Polak, MP for Langley, and Russ Hiebert, MP for South Surrey, White Rock and Cloverdale.

The installation of Atkinson as president and vice chancellor, and Bubber as chancellor, involved them being asked series of questions and having them respond with “I will so do” to each. Following that, the two were stripped of their purple and red robes, and re-dressed in black and red ones.

The convocation wrapped up with a blanketing ceremony which was carried out by members of the Kwantlen First Nation.

But helping the sick and injured has its price: the five-week trip will cost anywhere from $1,800 to $3,200 for each student. So as well as attending third-year classes, Beard and classmates plan will spend the next year raising funds.

They start Friday, Sept. 26, when they host a club night at the Mirage Nightclub in Surrey. The event begins at 9 p.m., tickets are $10 and there’s a free drink if you arrive before 10 p.m.

“We’re hoping to do a lot of other fundraisers throughout the year to raise money as well,” says Beard. “We’re pretty much just getting started right now. This is our first event, and it’s been kind of hectic…so hopefully it will go well.”

Beard said the nursing students want to work with children in Thailand.

“We’re going to HIV clinics and orphanages and working with the kids…teaching them about prevention and hand washing — basic stuff like that,” she said.