Winnipeg women's work honoured

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Darlene Lindsay (left) taught Dr. Chau Pham 'happiness is giving to others.'

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Free Press photographers Mike Deal (from left), Wayne Glowacki, Ruth Bonneville, Boris Minkevich and photo editor Mike Aporius celebrate Bonneville's achievements.

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Wanda Luna.

The YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Awards gala was a blush-worthy experience. At the glitzy event held Wednesday night in the convention centre, each nominee had to stand in the spotlight in front of 950 people while CTV news anchor Maralee Caruso, the mistress of ceremonies, enumerated each nominee's many accomplishments.

The night's most emotional speech came from Dr. Chau Pham, an emergency room physician at St. Boniface and Health Sciences Centre who spent her early childhood in a Vietnamese orphans refugee camp. She founded a charity called Canadians Helping Kids in Vietnam in 1995. She won for voluntarism, advocacy and community enhancement.

Pham, who came to Winnipeg at age eight, thanked her fiancé first. "We fell in love on one of my medical missions!" she told the crowd. The doctor started to tear up when she thanked her adoptive Canadian mom Darlene Lindsay, "who taught me that happiness is giving to others."

After the award ceremony, she said, "My auntie's here, too! I was in the orphans' refugee camp in Vietnam because I had TB and my aunt stayed with me two years after she could have gone."

Former winner Sylvia Kuzyk hugged Winnipeg Free Press photographer Ruth Bonneville and congratulated her on her nomination in the public awareness and communication division. Bonneville was one of the first female newspaper photographers at the Winnipeg Free Press. Bonneville sat with a table of supportive colleagues, including FP photo editor Mike Aporius and fellow photogs Wayne Glowacki, Boris Minkevich and Mike Deal.

At the head table were deputy mayor Paula Havixbeck, Education Minister Nancy Allen, YMCA-YWCA board chair Jonathan Woolley, vice-chair Sara MacArthur, event chair Betty Black and event organizer and CEO Dave Young. Co-ordinator Mel Marginet had been there since 1 p.m. and left at 11 p.m., tired and happy.

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FIRST FRIDAY CHANGE: You won't find Wanda Luna and her gang of First Friday exhibitors and primo partiers atop the 216 McDermot Ave. building anymore. The arts community of The Exchange District opens its doors tonight (and the first Friday of every month) to the public for exhibits, receptions and parties. But Luna was forced to move.

"The city and the landlord were at odds with each other over permits, and we paid the price," says the exuberant Chilean-Canadian, who spent years showing upcoming artists on her studio walls for free.

Luna has been painting in a storage unit for the last few months.

"It's only about six feet by six feet," she said with a laugh. That's a tiny space for a woman who's known for her giant red cello paintings -- some of them eight feet tall.

Check out her new works tonight at Frame Gallery, 318 Ross Ave. The show, Rojo, includes the works of artist Louise Kollinger. It opens at 7 p.m. with the Mariachi Ghosts playing, and Vander Howard-Scott, a cello scholarship winner at McGill.

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AT OTHER VENUES: A program of artists, designers, jewellers, photogs, video and film types opening their doors tonight can be found at www.firstfridayswinnipeg.org

P.S. You can catch Split Crooked for $5 playing the Winnipeg Free Press News Café at 237 McDermot Ave. between your gallery stops.

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BEER & SKITS, ANYONE? "It's hard-hitting political and social satire at its most politically incorrect!" scream posters for the BS Comedy Players' Rock 'Em Sock 'Em 2012.

The playbill shows an actor dressed as Don Cherry, with his dukes up in boxing gloves. At the Prairie Theatre Exchange on May 24 and 25, broad-minded Winnipeggers can see the scandals of the previous year gleefully parodied. The BS Comedy Players are an independent offshoot of the former Winnipeg Press Club Beer & Skits show.

Blind city councillor Ross Eadie actually requested the same actor to play him this year -- Corey Quintaine. Eadie can't see, but he can hear the clever barbs, and he loves a ribbing. Free Press columnist Lindor Reynolds (played by the show's artistic director, Mitch Krohn) was so popular last year she returns as a female hockey player at Schmockey Night, helping a team of media women take on the returned Winnipeg Jets.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; curtain rises at 7:30 p.m. Get tickets at 339-6317 or email www.bscomedy.com

Got tips, events, sightings, unusual things going on? Call Maureen's tip line at 474-1116, email Maureen.Scurfield@winnipegfreepress.com or mail The Insider, c/o Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, R2X 3B6.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 4, 2012 B2