3rd Annual Piping for the Padre

On Saturday Marhc 1 at 7 PM, the British Columbia Irish Pipers & Drums will be joined by the 15th Field Artillery Band for the 3rd Annual Piping for the Padre. The concert is a fundraiser for the Padre's Fund, which providessupport for the women and men of the reserves, particularly the BC Regiment. The fund provides resources for resilience training, physical traiing, spiritual and mental support as well as finacial support for the troops.

The BC Regiment Irish Pipes and Drums, which is an all-volunteer band made up of civilian women, men and youth of diverse ethnic origins is based out of the Beatty Street Drill Hall in Vancouver. The band practices at Templeton High School in East Vancouver on Tuesdays and at the Beatty Street Drill Hall on Mondays.

The members of the band finance operation through many fundraising events and the kind donations of supporters. The band plays at various civic functions, charitable events, parades, and military functions, primarily in the Metro Vancouver Area.

The 15th Field Regiment (RCA) Band is one of five Reserve Force bands in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, located at Bessborough Armoury in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a brass and reed band that is part of the RCA's 15th Field Artillery Regiment. All 45 members of the band are reservists while being trained as soldiers and musicians.^[ The Band plays for a variety of events including military funerals, ceremonies, parades and Mess events. The band maintains a full marching and concert band as well as other musical ensembles that include jazz combos and rock bands.

The band's Director of Music is the unit's principal conductor and is responsible for the band's creative direction. The band was formed in 1934, 20 years after the regiment's establishment and just after it moved into its current base. Since 1994, the band has been the only reserve band on the mainland British Columbia. In 2000, the band outgrew its facilities in the Bessborough Armoury and relocated to the Garrison Headquarters building near Jericho Beach on English Bay. The Band then moved to the newly built Hoffmeister Building near the Burrard Street Bridge in 2019. Although still under the command and control of the home regiment, the band functions largely independently as a self-contained subunit and performs more than one hundred engagements annually