About Us

About Us

Hillcrest Centre —located near Queen Elizabeth Park — has activities and programs for all ages and abilities. We have an aquatic centre, fitness centre, ice rink, gymnasium, indoor cycling, multi-purpose rooms, a games room, dance studio, playgrounds, childcare centre, and café. Our award-winning complex is a Vancouver Green City facility and is certified as LEED Gold.

Riley Park Hillcrest Community Association

The RPHCA is a partner with the Vancouver Park Board in the delivery of community programs at the Hillcrest Centre. The RPHCA is also an important voice of the local community providing an integral piece in the overall development of programs and activities offered at the centre. In addition, as advocates within the community, the Hillcrest Centre welcomes the opportunity to connect with other local members and organizations through the RPHCA, which ensures we remain relevant to the wider community needs.

Executives

Ken Charko | President

Ken Charko serves as the President of the Riley Park Hillcrest Community Centre Association for the past seven years; it is the largest community centre in the city and an Olympic legacy center, and is also the Director of the British Columbia Motion Picture Association and a Grassroots community leader.

Ken Charko has many achievement just recently he received the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year award and past nomination for Environmental Innovator for the City of Vancouver. In addition, The Jewish Independent had named him “Champion of the Arts”. This is among a variety of accomplishments from being a small business owner.

Eli Zbar | Vice president & Secretary

Eli has been re-elected four times as Vice President of the RPHCA. His continued engagement with the RPHCA involves management of a multimillion dollar community centre with over 40,000 users. He plays an active role on the executive board. Eli’s participation with the RPHCA is part of a lifelong commitment to volunteerism and to improve the community. He strongly adhere to his ethical values, which motivates him to work towards restoring fiscal and administrative transparency to the RPHCA. This effort includes working closely with lawyers in both litigation and mediation settings.

Ray Chung | Treasurer

treasurer@rphca.ca

Olga Zarudina | Community Outreach

Olga Zarudina is a licensed REALTOR® and a certified translator. Olga holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Linguistics and Translation/Interpretation. She has served as a Director-at-Large on the Board of Directors of the Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia. Olga belongs to the senior layer of the millennials generation and recognizes the issues that young families with children face in big cities: accessible usage of pools, cleanliness of parks, and limited availability of sports grounds.

Being a strong supporter of the world of art, she wishes to bring Vancouver vibrant arts and music culture to the next level. Thus, she focuses on advocating for local artists, sculptors, musicians and all Vancouverites in their artistic self-expression to make the city esthetically bloom with new colours.

Board of Directors

Annual General Meetings

Since the October 2016 AGM, the new board of directors under my direction has achieved significant progress in a short time. Some notable achievements include: holding at least 1 board meeting per month; cutting legal and other non-core expenses by ~90%; and reviewing over $50,000 in new equipment and infrastructure for the Association programs and facilities.

Careers

We hire instructors and employees on an ongoing basis, please check back soon! However, we are always keen to meet energetic and talented professionals who would like to join our team.