From: Diane Sampson on FB
"From 1994-2010, the lions were decorated each year by an anonymous good samaritan. Then, in 2011, the tradition abruptly stopped and the lions were left naked for the holidays. Photo: Mauro Azzano/Inside Vancouver Now, that mysterious decorator has finally come forward and broken the silence, as reported in the Vancouver Sun. His name is Mauro Azzano, a mystery writer from Richmond. In the early '90s, he decided it would be "a cool thing" to dress up the lions, an idea borrowed from the New York Public Library and its own crouching felines. He asked the Province's Transportation Ministry for permission and was given the go-ahead, on one condition: he had to remain anonymous. So for 17 years, Azzano packed his family into the car on the Saturday before Christmas. Then, after making a stop at the Dollar Store for bows and the Bay for wreaths, he'd park off the Stanley Park causeway and get down to business. Without any assistance, in all kinds of weather, Azzano would scramble up onto the lions, affixing the decorations around their necks"
