Vancouver Firefighters Charities (VFC) and Downtown entertainment destination Parq Vancouver have announced Vancouver’s Juliette Busch as the recipient of the inaugural Parq Vancouver Casino Firefighter Bursary.
The annual bursary comes about as the result of a new partnership between VFC and Parq and provides an applicant who exemplifies the high standards and commitment required to be a firefighter with the funds necessary to complete their journey. Busch will be awarded the bursary at a ceremony that will be held at Parq Vancouver at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 15.
Busch, 29, a lifelong resident of Vancouver who sustained serious burns in an incident when she was five years old, has volunteered with the BC Professional Firefighters Burn Fund for more than a decade and offered guidance, support and mentorship to young burn survivors as a counsellor at the same Burn Camp where she was once an attendee.
She is also a counsellor at Little Lionhearts Family Camp, which provides a safe and welcoming retreat for child burn survivors from infancy to age six and their families, the peer support leader for the Lower Mainland’s Adult Burn Survivor Program, and a leader with Girl Guides Canada.
It’s not the first time that Parq has stepped up to show its support for VFC. Parq was an official partner of the 2023 edition of the annual Hall of Flame Calendar, which has raised more than a million dollars for an array of BC charities, non-profits and community programs since its debut in 1988.
The Hall of Flame calendar is the longest running firefighters’ calendar in the world and has raised more than a million dollars for the BC Professional Firefighters Burn Fund as well as VFC’s charitable outreach programs like Snacks for Kids and Lifelines for Seniors that benefit at-risk youth and seniors in communities throughout BC since its debut in 1988.