Burnaby’s South Korean sister city donated 15,000 masks to city hall and another 5,000 to the Korean community in the city.
Hwaseong, a city of over 600,000, located just southeast of Seol, has been Burnaby’s sister city in South Korea since 2010, according to the City of Burnaby’s website. In an effort to help fight COVID-19, the Hwaseong donated thousands of masks to Burnaby in two ceremonies on Monday.
First, a donation was made with 15,000 masks, in boxes bearing the phrases “Stay strong Canada” and “Stay strong Burnaby” in bold letters, at Burnaby City Hall. That was followed by another ceremony at the New Vista retirement homes in Burnaby, with some of the masks going to Korean veterans and others going to other local Korean seniors.
Present at city hall for the donation were Frank Peabody, assistant governor of Rotary district 5040; Yang Shin, the former president of the Korean Veterans Association; Michael Chang, ambassador of the Seoul’s metropolitan council and member of the Multicultural Advisory Council of B.C.; Byung-Won Chung, consul general of the Republic of Korea in Vancouver; Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley; Coun. James Wang; Coun. Pietro Calendino; and Coun. Colleen Jordan.
During the ceremony, Chang and Chung congratulated the city and province on the headway made at mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and expressed condolences for the loss of Coun. Paul McDonell, who died earlier this month.
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