The crowd at the 2011 Victory Square Block Party. Photo by Kate Henderson.

If you weren’t at our Victory Square Block Party last Labour Day weekend, you missed an amazing day. We had beautiful weather, wonderful people and, most importantly, some incredible performers. Thanks to everyone’s help Megaphone raised just under $2,000 for our fall fundraising drive. Now we need you to help us raise $3,000 more.

The Victory Square Block Party is part of what makes Vancouver such an amazing city. Bands like Sun Wizard and My Friend Wallis showed us the strong, creative talent Vancouver keeps producing, while the throngs of dancing, happy people reminded us how we can take over our public space and have a good time together.

And once again, the sprinklers didn’t go off this year.

Many thanks to all the organizations who sponsored the Block Party—Finavera Wind Energy, SFU, Hastings Crossings BIA, Mint Records, Scion, Zulu and Red Cat Records and CCEC Credit Union. Without them we would not be able to put the event together.

A very special thanks to all the performers and volunteers who generously gave their time. Your dedication made the Victory Square Block Party a magical day and helped Megaphone get started on our fundraising campaign. We’d also like to thank all of you who purchased a raffle ticket or a copy of the magazine from our vendors—your support helps us keep going. Now we just need a little more.

This fall, Megaphone needs to raise $5,000 so we can keep providing training and supports for our homeless and low-income vendors. We rely on donations to purchases hats, T-shirts, bags and badges for our vendors, as well as to fund additional training programs for them. These help our vendors have the necessary gear and give them a solid footing to help them succeed.

These programs, fueled by your supporting donations, are changing people’s lives.

“I like the fact that I’m actually doing something to earn my money rather than begging,” says Megaphone vendor Joe Kryklywy, who sells by Waterfront Station. “I think that it’s positive, it gives me some self-esteem and it also gives me the chance to interact with people and practice my social skills, which is important for work also.”

The Victory Square Block Party helped us raise $2,000 so we can keep helping vendors like Joe succeed. Please make a donation today, so we can reach our goal of $5,000 and help more of our city’s homeless and low-income people succeed.