Here are just a few of the happenings between staff, friends, and family at DDA!
Christmas Wish Breakfast
For the past several years, Child & Youth Services has invited staff and families to contribute toys to the Lower Mainland’s Christmas Bureau.
All Child & Youth development centres and the Shell Road/Kaslo offices collected new, unwrapped toys for this annual community building event. The dedicated centre managers, in a van bursting with donations and holiday spirit, made a 6:00 a.m. delivery to the Christmas Wish Breakfast at the Pan Pacific Vancouver hotel on December 13, 2018.
We wish to extend our thanks to all staff, families and friends who made contributions to this heartwarming cause. It truly is a team effort and we are grateful to take part in this welcomed tradition.
Arlington Celebrates Christmas
This past December, the six residences at Arlington came together to celebrate the holidays at Trout Lake Community Centre with families and friends.
There were close to 100 guests gathered to enjoy the festivities; with 24 residents between the homes it does not take long to fill a hall. This has become a holiday tradition at Arlington that we all enjoy. It is a great opportunity for our Arlington community tocollectively celebrate the holidays and for our families to visit. We celebrated alongside many parents, siblings and friends. Many of their friends live in other DDA residences or vocational programs. In all, nine other DDA programs were represented!
This year’s celebration included a delicious Italian-themed lunch with many holiday treats. We were entertained by a professional classical trumpet player and enjoyed a sing-a-long of all the holiday favorites. Another popular activity is our homemade holiday photo booth. Individuals with their friends and family had the opportunity to don their favourite seasonal prop and have a fun picture to take home to remember the occasion.
We heard many comments by families like: “I love this party”, “this is such a good way to see everyone”, and “we look forward to this all year.”
A wonderful time was had by all and we thank everyone who helped to make this happen. We are already looking forward to planning next year’s event!
DDA Performing Arts Theatre’s Christmas Play: “Coming Together”
This past Christmas, we continued to promote community inclusion and spread our message through the performing arts.
The performance proved to be a simple, yet powerful story of how a community can embrace a lonely person living alone. They welcomed her into their community, making her the guest of honour at their Christmas celebration. Community members then shared their gifts and talents for all to enjoy together. The play concluded with a community song speaking to the meaning of the Christmas spirit:
My hands…My hands
Your hands…Your hands
I give to you…I give to you
You give to me…You give to me
We…give…together…together!
It was a truly beautiful, heartwarming and celebratory holiday message!
The theatre play was collaboratively created by Susanna Uchatius, the artistic director of Theatre Terrific. Music was composed by Angelo Moroni and our own clients! Our talented artist Carol Lavorato was the lead actor. Doug Harrison and Tracy Mohns as community leaders. Guitarist Charles Waterman with dancers, Allan Chow, Jassaaren Jhajh, John Dietrich, Paya Hossainnia, David Purkis, Merrilee Morgan, Fred Alcock, Michael Annala, Dolores Allison, Pamela Deo, Philip Chong,Trevor Minster and our very talented singers Bernadette Seipp, Sherri Sano, Laurie Freeman, Anne Radoslovich, Linda Short, Stephen Haynes, Frieda Wiens and Simon Gardiner. Many others who joined us, watched the show and cheered on!
Many thanks to all of our supporting staff and artists, performers, dancers, musicians and singers. We are extremely proud of your creativity, enthusiasm and participation!
Looking forward to the next performing arts play – stay tuned!
