By Jackie Lanz
Grandview Day Program has a new home & a new name!
I can hardly believe that the time has come to finally share our new day program with our DDA family.
The Grandview Day program happily resided at its previous location on Grandview Highway for over 20 years. When the building was sold, we were evicted and we didn’t have a new site to move into at the time. Fortunately for us, we were able to take up a small space next to DDA’s Kaslo hub and did so until February 2023.
Despite what felt like an endless property search, we finally found a space that felt like it could be ‘the one” from the moment I walked in. It is near East 16th and Fraser Street with many parks nearby in a great community. I would soon find that navigating the building permit process and working on a project during a pandemic would come with many challenges; no face-to-face contact, supply and demand shortages, endless delays, etc.
February 21st, 2023, was the big day to move in. It was a day that felt like it was never going to come and had finally arrived. The dreams and sketches of all involved in the design collaboration had finally come to life. The East 16th program is a light-filled, spacious 2-story site, now fully equipped with an elevator, Snoezelen room, and indoor/outdoor multiuse spaces for all of our current and future programming needs. Our participants adapted really well to the move and we are working with CLBC on new referrals.
Note: A special thank you to Assistant Director, Jackie Lanz who oversaw the permits and contractors, Glen Hickey and Laki Grigoriadis (Lockwell Construction) for creatively staying on budget amidst numerous revisions from the City, our East 16th team, as we could not have gotten to the finish line without you, our clients who were resilient through two moves & the Children’s Foundation and our Kaslo site who provided us with a welcoming space when we were in need. This new site would not have been possible without the support of our Board of Directors who directed fundraised dollars and provided a large capital budget.
