DSA Media blog

The Team

After all of the Pirate Booties hard work the day finally came where we were tasked to run 10k or walk 5k to bring awareness to cancers below the waist. In the spirit of camaraderie we all walked the 5k together booties a-waving.

We are happy to announce that due to the support of our friends, family, colleagues, and sponsors we were able to raise a total of $4,137.37. We were 26th place for highest fundraising teams….Not to shabby for only 2 months of planning.

Check out some of the event photos below:

Team Pirate Booties starts on their 5k trek

Men's Costume Contest

The Pandorans joined us for the cause

2 BEE Cancer Free - Best Team Costume

Kathryn accepts defeat from the Best Female Costume Winner - Angel

You must stretch before exercising

Big enough for two

Care to Join our Team?

We’re all signed up for the 2011 Event on July 9th. Right now we’re brainstorming costume ideas. Post your ideas as comments and in the end we’ll pick the top 5 to do a poll and everyone can vote on what we should be. Some ideas are: Greek Gods, Construction Workers, Tron Characters, Adam/Eve….and whatever your creative minds can think of.

Thanks for all of your support! We’re so happy to be sponsoring such a wonderful cause!

More pictures can be found HERE

Pirate Booties

On June 19, 2010 the DSA Pirate Booties hosted a pub night at the Thirsty Penguin in Langley. The crew dressed up in G rated versions of their pirate gear and entertained the guests with a variety of activities including a silent auction, a toonie toss, 50/50 raffle and everyone’s favourite: Door Prizes.

Our fundraising goal was $500 each as we only had two months before the run and owe much of reaching this goal to our friends, family, colleagues, and all of the sponsors who were able to donate such fabulous prizes. In total, the pub night raised around $3000.

Jennifer was the Toonie Toss master and made sure that no one cheated when trying to win the 40 of Captain Morgans or Grey Goose.

Jacquie played MC and tried to rig the door prize draw: not that it did her any good because neither her, her parents or her fiancé actually won anything.

Guests gathered round to drink their grog and eat their grub. Surprisingly enough it tasted quite like burgers and beer.

Overall the night was a success and we would like to thank everyone who played a part in this. Now all we have to do is run…

MORE PICTURES CAN BE FOUND HERE

In 2009, an estimated 570 women were diagnosed with uterine cancer; 1,010 cases were diagnosed with bladder cancer; and 2,650 cases were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. So often, talking about these types of cancers makes us uncomfortable; we’re embarrassed or ashamed. These cancers account for 42% of all newly diagnosed cases in British Columbia so why won’t we talk about it? No More! It is time to lift this taboo and start shedding some light on cancers below the waist. DSA is going to drop everything on July 10th to do just that at the BC Cancer Foundations 5th Annual Underwear Affair.

The DSA “Pirate Booties” will be joining hundreds of people running the streets of Vancouver to bring awareness to the cause. We will be sporting full costumes (down to the knickers) while running the 10km or walking the 5km course. Our goal is to plunder and loot for donations, and in turn; blow the $1500 team minimum out of the water.

Donations are accepted directly online. All donations over $10 will be provided with a tax receipt from the BC Cancer Foundation and the donation process is quick and easy. Simply click on one of the links below and select “Donate to [name]“. Then follow the steps to complete the online donation form. Alternatively, you can fill out the DSA_Pirate_Booties_Donation_Form and mail it with the donation to The Underwear Affair – 303-698 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 3K6.

Kristina – http://va10.uncoverthecure.org/site/TR/Events/Vancouver2010?px=1806239&pg=personal&fr_id=1170

Jacquie -http://va10.uncoverthecure.org/site/TR/Events/Vancouver2010?px=1806242&pg=personal&fr_id=1170

Alexander -http://va10.uncoverthecure.org/site/TR/Events/Vancouver2010?px=1806250&pg=personal&fr_id=1170

Kathryn -http://va10.uncoverthecure.org/site/TR/Events/Vancouver2010?px=1806258&pg=personal&fr_id=1170

Jennifer -http://va10.uncoverthecure.org/site/TR/Events/Vancouver2010?px=1806274&pg=personal&fr_id=1170

Alternatively, on Saturday, June 19th, we will be holding a pub night fundraiser at Twin Rinks in Langley. We are looking for prizes for our raffle and silent auction.

If you have any questions about the event please contact me or check out the website http://www.uncoverthecure.org. If you watch the opening video, you may even catch a sneak peak of DSA-er Jacquie Anderson during her last run as superhero She-RA. We appreciate all support you can provide, please donate today; any amount will help the fight.

Together we can find a solution.

On Tuesday I played an amazing game of phone tag. Kathryn had pointed Chris from NHL.com in my direction and by the time we stopped playing I had a ticket to the USA Quarter Final Men’s Hockey Match.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the game as it was all last minute. Karen from NHL.com met me with two Cossette-rs a couple blocks away from GM [ahem, Canada Hockey] Place and the 4 of us headed through security to get to our seats. I assumed they were just normal every day tickets in the bowl and was excited when we were taken through the gate to the box suites. My jaw dropped as we reached our suite with double glass doors right behind the Swiss net. The biggest suite I’ve ever seen filled with food and our own personal bar, I was in Hockey Heaven.

My day only got better after eatings some delicious spring rolls and shrimp turns out we were sitting right behind hockey legend Brendan Shanahan. Commissioner Gary Bettman was also kicking around the suite so I quickly texted my fiance to make him jealous and learned that somewhere on a bookshelf in my house is a Shanny rookie card! Karen was so great to us and asked Shanny if he would take a photo. So yes, that’s right, that’s me below with Shanny (and Peter and Ashley from Cossette) in the NHL suite, no big deal.

So a huge thank you to the NHL team, especially Chris for hunting me down and Karen for having me as her guest. I had an unforgettable day at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic USA vs SWITZERLAND Hockey Game. Congrats to Team USA for winning a hard fought game (you’ll be seeing team Canada in the Finals for a rematch).

January 21st, 2010

We are pleased to announce that Brooklyn Mae Burgham was born at St. Paul’s Hospital today.

Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing amazingly well.

Brooklyn Mae Burgham
Born 1:54pm Friday January 21st, 2010
7lbs 6 oz.

Congrats Dustin & Jamie!

Every year, in lieu of sending gifts, DSA Media donates to local charity’s on behalf of each staff member.

This years donations are as follows:

• David & Mary – The Salvation Army
• Shannon – The BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
• Dustin & Jamie – The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
• Alexander – World Vision
• Megan – The Breast Cancer Foundation
• Sam – Shriners Hospital for Children
• Kathryn – The David Suzuki Foundation
• Jenn & Jacquie – The BC Cancer Foundation ( for Cancers below the waist)

We hope that these donations will help those in need and encourage our friends and peers to also support a cause that is close to their heart.

Happy Holidays from DSA Media

Work Christmas

It seems these days that Christmas isn’t just December 25th anymore. With so many friends and loved ones celebrating together – Christmas isn’t just one day, it’s a full month.

For me its:

Friend Christmas: December 5 (my first turkey making experience) and December 23

Family Christmas: December 24 & 25

In-Law Christmas: December 29 (extended in-laws) and January 2

and Work Christmas: December 11

Now some people may shun this idea of multiple Christmas’s…and you know who they are when you invite them to do something and they start grumbling about how it’s already that time of year again…but I really enjoy the fact that we have this opportunity to share the holiday spirit with everyone in our lives.

DSA Langley did a Secret Santa this year and dedicated an afternoon at the office to fun Christmas activities including painting and Ginger Bread House construction. At lunch we all crammed into the boardroom for eats from East Side Marios (and we were even spoiled with a special trip to Olive Garden for breadsticks because they’re awesome). Over pasta and salad we debated what this years Christmas movie would be-Dustin won with The Santa Claus with Tim Allen which was thoroughly entertaining.

While the movie played in the background some of us started our Christmas crafts. Dustin, Alexander, Sam and I all painted Christmas decorations. Dustin and Sam painted penguins while Alexander and I painted snowmen. Everyone else made gingerbread houses.

Jamie bought a bunch of gingerbread house making kits that required you to make your frosting so the kitchen was busy with everyone taking turns with the hand mixer to make sure their frosting would be a good support to their walls and roof and then it was another pile into the boardroom to get the creative juices to start flowing. One of Mary’s walls broke so she stole one from David and getting that thing standing up was a difficult task…where is Holmes on Holmes when you need him?  Kathryn could have used some expect help as well as her house starting slowly toppling over during the Secret Santa gift exchange only to end up demolished by the time we all had opened our gifts. (An extra Thank you to David my Santa who got me a laughing/rolling pig with a motion sensor who is currently waiting on the floor of my living room for an unexpected visitor to walk by and trigger it’s laughter/movement. This piggie is hilarious!)

By the end of the day, the floor was covered in icing and my hands were covered in paint but there is no other way I would have wanted Work Christmas to go.  Being at DSA is like being part of a family and that made the holiday spirit brighter then ever. So no, this wasn’t just another day of Christmas that those holiday haters dread…this was an office family getting together and celebrating the day, DSA style.

Every so often there comes a time when we here at the DSA Langley office venture out of the Fraser Valley into the Downtown Vancouver core; last Friday was one of those days. The CBC hosted an Open House on December 4 for their Annual Food Bank Day Fundraiser and we just had to be there.  For the weeks before we collected our non-perishables and then Friday afternoon we piled into a caravan of cars headed to the newly renovated CBC building.

We dropped off our boxes of food donations and were then happily met by Stephen Jodoin (@stephenjodoin) and Jennifer Smith who gave us a personalized tour of the facilities.

During the tour we got to see (and even be part of) all of the inner workings of  the broadcasting world:

Dustin alerts viewers of a cold front coming in from the west.

David and Dustin give radio listeners the latest CBC News update.

Kathryn sends breaking news to CBC through the news truck

And we even got to hit some of the behind the scenes places that no one else got to see…like the Media Sales Department.

We all crammed in the boardroom for an important meeting.

All in all we really enjoyed our time at CBC and think that their annual Food Bank Day is a fantastic way to help the community! Lot’s of people will be able to have a happy holiday season because of the CBC’s efforts and we are glad that we got to be part of it.

And Thanks CBC for bringing out one of our favourite celebrities:

Peter Puck takes the time to come and support the Food Bank with CBC and DSA Media

I roll over and stare at the bright red numbers of the clock radio…2:00AM. Note to self: no more caffeine after 5:00PM. A rockstar energy drink and a case of the excited nerves prevent my eyes from wanting to close; they fight to stay wide-eyed and wired as the night goes on.

JUMP

The 6:00AM alarm screams me awake as my fiancé rolls over to hit the snooze; I had finally gotten to sleep…I guess that’s over. I wanted to fall back asleep but forced myself out of the evil bed that was so warm and cozy before it trapped me forever; a new exciting day awaited me.

The rain sprinkles down falling heavier and heavier with each time a traffic light stops me. I run into the building, up the elevator to the door…it’s locked. Really? I’m not that early. Yes really it’s locked. I wander the building aimlessly…what to do, what to do? I try the door again. The handle won’t turn….weird, it turned before. There’s voices…knock knock. Nothing. Knock Knock. The handle turns (I swear it wouldn’t turn for me) and thus my day begins.

A picture of Darth Vader with an M&M on Kathryn’s desk…do you think my t-shirt with him deciding whether or not the Death Star should be pink would be appropriate for the office? Lunch break: Best friend is jealous of my rad team. “You win….Everything!”

Read welcomes. Check

Email colour coordinated. Check

Business cards in wallet. Check

Desk stocked. Check

Familiarize Familiarize Familiarize.

Today marks the calm before the storm…

…And by storm I mean the hustle and bustle of every day life. Today has given me a great opportunity to dip my toe in and see how things work. I’m looking forward to getting to know the team better and diving into the media world J

This year, our entire agency got to attend the 2009 AbCOM Christmas party. We purchased a table for those who were not invited by other industry suppliers, so it was great to be surrounded by all my friends & work colleagues for an afternoon for Christmas cheer.

My highlight of the night was the Audrey awards presentation. Every year (the past eight at least ), I am frustrated at the lack of attention this presentation receives. I know, in part, it is because times are changing and there is an entirely new generation of people in our industry. I also know the impossibility that is getting over 500 people to be quiet. Still, when David won the award 6 years ago, I was torn between a feeling of joy that my boss (and Dad) was being recognized for a lifetime achievement in media and total disappointment that the table adjacent to ours was shouting over each other through his acceptance speech.

I sat beside Shawn Elphick last year (who I have known for a long time and who is currently the president at AbCOM) and commented on how disappointed I was that limited attention was given through the awards ceremony. I felt it cheapened the award, not only for the recipient & their “fans”, but also for those who continued to talk. Why would anyone who had come in in the past 1/2 decade care about these awards if all of their peers were talking through the ceremony. Shawn echoed my concerns and said that they were working on a way to bring back some of the brilliance.

I sat anxious this year waiting for the presentation to begin. Was it going to be the same rigermarole with a caring MC shouting into the microphone in hopes of reaching the crowd? Would I be reduced to grinding my teeth and casting stink eyes at my table mates until they quieted down? There are 2 HUGE projection screens that showcase the companies who have donated a gift/prize for the evening. It slowly rotates and after an initial glance, it’s hardly a point of interest for the rest of the party. The room went dark after they announced the start of the Audrey award presentation and there was a reduction in overall noice. Out boomed Mel Sprackman’s gigantic voice as he asked people in the audience to quiet down for the presentation. The room went still.

Brilliant brilliant BRILLIANT! The power of video in a room of BROADCAST people! The irony wasn’t lost on me. A 1-2 minute presentation on who Audrey Bothamley was and why she is the face of this industry award led into Mel coming on screen again to personalize the award and the woman who inspired it. As last year’s recipient, I’d wager that he had more attention this year than he had received when he accepted the award the year before. As the lights came on and the teaser speech began, silence reined. It was the most attentive and respectful crowd I have ever seen at AbCOM and my heart was joyous as I saw Doug Elphick, both a family friend and a long-time industry personality, honoured with the Audrey.

I want to congradulate the AbCOM committee for the last few years of innovation. I have seen the prizing streamlined, the raffles made easier and the Audrey revitalized and I enjoy the AbCOM Christmas afffair far more than I ever have before. I’m looking forward to next year to see what you cook up. The only thing left to say: BRING BACK THE CARTOONIST!