St. Paul's Lights of Hope

Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Foundation celebrates the 22nd anniversary of its annual Lights of Hope hospital fundraising event over the Christmas season in 2019.

Lights of Hope Christmas Lights

If you’ve ever driven down Burrard Street at night between mid-November and the beginning of January you’ve no doubt noticed the amazing Christmas lights on St. Paul’s Hospital. A Vancouver landmark during the winter holiday season, the front of the giant brick building’s exterior is lit up with illuminated stars from top to bottom.

One evening in mid-November the hospital gets lit up and celebrates the launch of the annual event with fireworks and live entertainment.

In 2019, launch night is on Thursday November 14th. After launch date, the lights generally stay on until the beginning of January.

The venue for the launch celebrations is outdoors at St. Paul’s Hospital which is located at 1081 Burrard Street.

St. Paul's Lights of Hope — St. Paul’s on Burrard Street at Night

Lights of Hope Launch Night

In recent years the launch night for the Lights of Hope has been on a Thursday evening in mid-November. In 2019 this takes place on Thursday November 14th. On that day, beginning at around 6:00 pm, St. Paul’s Hospital is lit up with Christmas illuminations and kicks off its foundation’s fundraising season with live entertainment and fireworks.

The launch event usually runs from around 6 or 6:30 until 8 pm with the lights going on and fireworks taking off at about 6:30 or slightly thereafter. At the celebrations each year there are food trucks, a few speeches, the recognition of major donors and performances by area choirs.

St. Paul’s Christmas Lights

If you look closely at the lights on the hospital during the Christmas season you’ll notice numerous star decorations and the names of people and corporations. That’s because the Lights of Hope is a major fundraising event for the St. Paul’s Foundation which raises money for major purchases for the hospital.

Donors buy “stars” on the building which make up the decorations on the hospital. The cost of each star ranges from about $1,000 to $50,000, and the larger the donation, the bigger the star.

For $1000, donors become a “Friend” of the hospital and get their names listed in the building’s courtyard. “Partners” donate $2500 and get their names or logo on a shared star in the hospital’s archway, and $5000 “Bronze” donors get individual stars that are 3-feet in size.

“Silver” donors get a 4-foot star for contributing $10,000, “Gold” sponsors get a 6-foot star in exchange for $20,000, and “Platinum” donors get their names and logos in massive 15-foot stars for contributions of $50,000 or more. Major donors in these categories generally comprise large corporations, media organizations and affluent local families.

Over the course of a typical year the St. Paul’s Foundation raises between about $20 and $30 million, with a significant portion of that coming from the Lights of Hope campaign. Last year the event raised $3.2 million.

About the Lights of Hope Lights

The Lights of Hope fundraising event has been lighting up St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver’s Burrard Street and Helmcken intersection since 1998.

The annual event takes over 150 volunteers a month and a half to set up and the display includes over 100,000 light bulbs and hundreds of illuminated donor stars.

The lights and star decorations are illuminated each year from mid-November until around the first week of January.

To donate to the Lights of Hope campaign, click St. Paul’s Donations.

St. Pauls Hospital Nativity — A nativity scene displayed some years outside the hospital

About St. Paul’s Hospital

St. Paul’s Hospital is an acute care hospital built in 1912 and located at 1081 Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver. Founded originally in 1894 by the Sisters of Providence, it’s a Roman Catholic faith-based health care provider that serves patients of all economic and faith backgrounds.

Today St. Paul’s has over 400 beds and provides health care services to over 380,000 patients per year. The hospital is also a world-class teaching and research facility.

To learn more about the hospital’s history, click Story of Providence Health Care.