An image from Saturday’s Big Gala at the Hart Community Centre – photo courtesy Big Brothers Big Sisters Prince George

Prince George, B.C. – This year’s Big Gala was a big success.

The second annual event put on by Big Brothers Big Sisters Prince George Saturday night at the Hart Community Centre eclipsed its goal of raising $15,000 by pulling in just over $18,500.

“It really beat our expectations, it was an amazing night,” says Sydney Sankey, communications and events coordinator. “People had heard such great things from it last year that it ended up selling 50 more tickets. Also with the Alice in Wonderland theme, one of the exciting things was how many people dressed up. It was so great to see everyone getting into the theme and getting a little silly on the night.”

She says proceeds from the evening will be funnelled into the agency’s mentoring programming.

“It actually costs about $1,500 a year to support and create a (mentoring) match so all the money that we do raise goes into that. We hope the money will help us to create more matches, to really enrich our mentoring program, to create more activities for them.”