They’re Best Work Buddies (BWBs) and they’re this week’s BWB Contest winners. Each pair has won a $10 coffee card and — along with everyone else who participated the past week — they’ll be entered in our Grand Prize draw. The prize? A 1-hour photo shoot with a professional photographer.

Vancouver’s BWB Contest is for everyone who calls one (or more) coworkers a best work friend. All Vancouver physicians, staff and LMC colleagues working in partnership with us are welcome to participate — and the more you participate, the more chances you have to win.

Our next draw is 12 pm Wednesday, July 22. For full contest details and entry instructions, refer to VCH News here.

For all photos submitted to date, visit our Vancouver Best Work Buddies Flickr site.

To learn more about this week’s winners and some of our other contestants, refer below.

BWB week 1 winners

Michelle Kumar and Melanie Serre

Michelle Kumar (front) and Melanie Serre, program assistants at South Community Health Centre on their “Last Renovation Day” in Home Health.

Where do you work? “We’re program assistants at the South Community Health Centre.”

 How did you meet? “We met on April 20^th, 2015, Michelle’s first day at the South Community Health Centre.”

 What do you admire most about each other?

• Melanie: “What I admire most about Michelle is her work ethic (and her smile!).”
• Michelle: “Melanie’s laugh.”

Naleena Gounder and Kelly Ball

Naleena Gounder, care coordinator, and Kelly Ball, social work case manager, of ACT 1 use creative licence to celebrate their friendship.

Where do you work? “Naleena is a care coordinator I’m a social work case manager. We work for the ACT team (ACT 1). “

How did you meet? “We first met at the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addictions in early 2010. This was not love at first sight but more ‘Who is that?’ Once we found out, the love story began!”

What do you admire most about each other? “Our sense of humor — we love to laugh — and we’re always up for a spa date, and never say no to a pedicure.”

The stories behind the photos

While we don’t have the space to share everyone’s full stories here (we’re working on that!), a few entries stood out for us and we’d like to share them with you today.

Dora Calvori and Brenda Rosenau

Dora Calvori (left) and Brenda Rosenau

Brenda writes: “I want to tell you a tale, about working with a beautiful lady named Dora Calvori. She is a social worker case manager, and I am a nurse case manager. Every day we come to work burdened with clients, mostly elderly, their families and the bureaucracy and stress of everyone around us. We love each other. We laugh together. We are grateful for the moment. We take our jobs seriously, but understand our most important mission is to support one another, getting through our days, respecting others, and ensuring our clients feel safe while they struggle with some of the hardest moments of their lives, letting go of their loved ones. With Dora, I mostly laugh. I could cry, but I celebrate because she is all heart compassion and soul, and every day I am blessed. I think she’d say the same about me, but then that would mean we love each other, and the world and Vancouver Coastal Health can only have so much love. Thanks Dora for being my friend and co-worker. One Vancouver, if anyone deserves a present for being beautiful it is us, even if we can be queens for a day LOL. Thanks for the contest, it inspired us to laugh during a stressful time at work.”

 Aaron Chan and Cameron Cunningham

Aaron Chan on Cam Cunningham’s shoulders; they’re both Residents in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at GF Strong.

Aaron, a Resident at GF Strong, writes: “Cam and I started medical school in 2008, but in the first few years we only said a handful of words to one another, as we just weren’t in the same circle of friends. It wasn’t until we discovered that we were both applying for residency positions in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation that we become friends, around 2011. In 2012, we were the two Residents matched to the program here at UBC (only 2 per year). Thus, we have become incredibly great friends, as we only have each other to lean on during our five-year residency. We jokingly call each other ‘work husbands’.”

Laura Vander Steen and Trisha Lal-Klima

Laura Vander Steen (left) and Trisha Lal-Klima, both social workers on Neurosciences at VGH, have been BWBs for more than 10 years.

Both social workers on Neurosciences at VGH, Laura and Trisha celebrated their 10^th BWB anniversary on July 4. Since then, Trisha writes: “…we have eaten EVERY lunch together, consulted on the toughest cases, danced in the office at a successful discharge and generally loved every moment we worked together. We hope we give our unit levity and hilarity, bringing us all together through our friendship. We have been there for each other’s defining life moments, including pregnancy, marriage and the difficult moments of family life. We both love good food (cue the food bits flying) and share a dark and disturbing sense of humor.”