UBC glassblower honours his daughter’s legacy with homemade beaker mugs

Every time UBC glassblower Brian Ditchburn sees a pink tricycle, he thinks of his daughter Kaelin and how he never got to teach her how to ride a bike.

Kaelin, who passed away 10 years ago, had a seizure disorder and was a frequent visitor to B.C. Children’s Hospital.

“She was having seizures once or twice a week,” Ditchburn said.

“When she was just about to turn eight, she had a seizure in her sleep and she passed away.”

To thank the nurses who looked after his daughter, Ditchburn started gifting them homemade glass beaker mugs.

He says he has always donated part of his paycheque to the hospital. When he lost his daughter, he thought of a new way to raise money and continue Kaelin’s legacy: selling his glass beaker mugs.

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“If I have a good year for the beaker mugs, I can sell $1,500 worth of beaker mugs,” he said.

“I gave a lot of beaker mugs out, and when it got to the point where Kaelin had passed, I was still making beaker mugs because people were asking for them. And I thought maybe I should make some money for Children’s and started selling them for $10 apiece.”

He says the glassware costs thousands of dollars, but he creates the items from scratch, selling them for only a fraction of the price.

But this is not the only way he gives back.

Every holiday season, the UBC Chemistry Student Organization hosts an end-of-year raffle. One of the prizes is a special glass-blowing workshop where Ditchburn teaches the winning student how to make glass icicles.

“Whatever money they make from the raffle goes to their favorite charity,” he said.

Ditchburn is the only dedicated glassblower on UBC’s Point Grey Campus and has been working there for 25 years.

“It’s fun, working with glass is awesome,” he said.

Ditchburn’s workshop is stuffed with glassware, tubes, and equipment, but his most treasured item is a photo of Kaelin and her brother that sits above his workstation, watching over him.