Ecole Handsworth Secondary student Lauren Yung shows off the design that won her the LGH Christmas Card Contest. Her design will be sold at Save-On-Foods stores across the North Shore. | LGH Foundation

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News.

It’s not even December yet and Ecole Handsworth Secondary student Lauren Yung is already crossing off an entry from her festive wish list: to be crowned winner of this year’s Lions Gate Hospital Foundation's Christmas Card Contest.

Christmas cards featuring the Grade 9 pupil’s seasonal design will be sold in Save-On-Foods stores across the North Shore and the LGHF's office at the hospital on 15th Street, with all proceeds set to go towards securing better equipment for the hospital.

“I was so happy when I found out, I was not expecting to win at all,” said a thrilled Yung following news of the victory.

Yung’s design, chosen from dozens of entries from students across the North Shore, celebrates an iconic little pocket of North Vancouver.

“I was thinking about the streets of Edgemont Village, and all the little lights that go along it, and I wanted to do that,” she said.

Yung used watercolours to depict the village’s main street, giving particular focus to its quaint toy stores and bookshops. The North Shore’s snow-capped mountains loom in the background, while string lights, bauble-decked trees and wreaths on shop fronts set the season.

Yung said “it’s really cool” that so many people will be able to view her design, and the small taste of artistic fame has only inspired her to continue her creative venture and “keep making cool projects.”

Art has been one of her favourite subjects “for the longest time,” she said, and while she likes to “use a bunch of different types of materials” when creating, it is watercolours where her heart currently lies.

As with every year, the eighth iteration of the Lion’s Gate Christmas Card Contest will see funds raised for the hospital’s Technology Transformation Campaign, a push to include 10 new technologies on the hospital's wards.

With the aim of improving patient comfort and safety alongside support to staff, the technologies range from central consoles that provide automated vital signs monitoring for staff to integrated bedside terminals that ensure patients can order meals, watch TV, make video calls and contact staff from their beds.