December 27 progress to date

Looking from the East


The back of the building


The front of our new "home"

Progress is quickly being made as our new "home" begins to really take shape and we can now visualize where the offices, the sensory garden out back, the rehearsal stage for TOV will all be.

The next month will definitely be an exciting one as we continue to photograph the construction progress and wait with eager anticipation for the day when we can move in.

Christmas celebrations at CLD

6 Turkeys donated by Maple Leaf Foods, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, fresh rolls from Holtom's bakery, and delicious tear-away cupcake cakes from Sobeys made for a scrumptious Christmas lunch.

Ever smiling Board members Fran, Huda and Maureen come every year to help spread Christmas cheer and the 120+ plates to all the guests.


Guests enjoy the company of friends, delicious food and christmas carols.

Toasting the season

From all of us at Community Living Dufferin we wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

December 13, 2009

The progress as of Sunday December 13, 2009

View from Highway 9

A little bit of snow didn't get in the way of our hardy construction team!

The berm for the amphitheatre is taking shape, the second floor is in place and the framing for the walls is ready to go up.

And we have a second floor

Needless to say this past week has seen a lot of progress for our new building.

And what a building it is as it takes shape....the second floor has been lifted into place by crane, a sight to behold it was too. At least according to the men on our Building Committee who all stood in awe as this giant crane lifted massive coreslabs into place forming the roof of the first floor, thereby creating the floor to the second storey.

The buzz of excitement is palpable as we watch the progression from just blocks and wood frame to an actual building that is resembling the vision we have seen of our new home.

Stay tuned as we continue to photograph each week and share the dream here with you.

Fundraising by our community members

Thank you to everyone who voted for our Creative Partners on Stage project on the Aviva Community Fund website.
Unfortunately we were up against some very tough competition and so failed to make it into the final round of judging. We'll get it next year!
Don't forget to keep checking back to see when tickets go on sale for Creative Partners on Stage production of the Sound of Music this coming March 2010.

This past month has seen 3 fundraising events here at Community Living Dufferin for our Building Dreams Together capital campaign.

Through the assistance of Thelma Fudge of Avon we sold 27 sets of hand blown glass Angel ornaments. With a profit of $4.00 per box set we raised $108.00 for BDT.

The Amaranth Lions have very generously named Building Dreams Together as the main benefactor of their annual Cash Calendar fundraising event. With 40% of the sales being donated to BDT, it's a potential $16,000.00 donation for our capital campaign. Thank you to the Amaranth Lions who have always been a great supporter of Community Living Dufferin with many of our fundraising events.

Our very own Joyful Voices choir hosted a Friends in Song Community Concert on November 22 at Orangeville District Secondary School. Accompanied by the wonderful voices of Shelburne's Forever Young Choir and the talented musicians of the Orangeville Community Band; Joyful Voices were successful in raising over $1,900.00 for BDT.

Thank you to each of you who purchased an Angel set, bought a calendar or attended the concert for your support in helping us to continue with our fundraising efforts.

You'll notice to the left of this post, photographs of our construction progress. Check back each week as we post the lastest photographs of the building as it takes shape over the next few months. With QPAC and Theatre Orangeville anticipating their move in date of March 2010, it will be exciting to watch as the building expands and takes form!

Aviva Community Fund

We are 3 days into Round 3 of the Aviva Community Fund competition.

Only the top 20 applicants will move to the Semi Finals.

We are sitting currently at 142 votes with only 10 days of voting left.

If we want to succeed in making it to the Semi Finals portion we will need to garner a minimum of 1500 votes.

Currently the top idea has secured 2406 votes.

The idea sitting in the coveted 20th spot has 953 votes.

Please go to the site and vote for us!

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf3745

Aviva Community Fund

On the Aviva Community Fund site, we have created a page for our Creative Partners on Stage drama group in the hope of receiving funding for this program.

Here's a quick view of how it works:

The Aviva Community Fund competition is held in 3 phases to determine which ideas get funded:

Idea Entry, Semi-Finals, and Judging.

First, you vote for your favourite idea through November 29th. The 60 most popular ideas, along with 2 "buzz worthy" ideas, will move on to the Semi-Finals.

Then, people will vote for their favourite semi-finalist ideas from December 2nd through December 16th.

At the end of the Semi-Finals, votes will be tallied and the most popular 25 ideas will become finalists and move on to the Judging phase.

Now comes the best part! Judging will take place from December 17th through January 25th, our panel of judges will review all of the finalist ideas and rank them based on pre-determined criteria to determine which ones will be funded.

So now you know how it works, click here, do a quick registration; email and password, and then vote for our idea, you can vote each and every day, which of course we hope you will do, the more votes we gather, the better our chances!

Friends in Song Community Concert

Community Living Dufferin presents:

Friends in Song

A fundraiser in support of Building Dreams Together

a community concert featuring:

Joyful Voices

(Community Living Dufferin’s integrated choir)

The Orangeville Community Band

Forever Young

(Shelburne Choir)

Sunday Nov. 22/09 ~ 3 - 5pm

Orangeville District S.S. 22 Faulkner Street, Orangeville

Tickets: $10.00

purchase tickets from

Community Living Dufferin, 29 Centennial Rd, Unit 10, Orangeville

Booklore, 121 First Street, Orangeville

Theatre Orangeville, 87 Broadway, Orangeville

or any Choir, Band member

Silent Auction ♪ Community Photography club ♪ 50/50 draw ♪ Baked goods

BDT Capital Campaign ~ an Update

I'd like to update you on where we stand in our Building Dreams Together campaign. There have been some tremendous achievements to date and we are very close to reaching our goal with thanks to you our supporters.

Great news for all of us – a $2.7 million Grant!
If you haven’t already heard, we have received a $2.7 million Community Adjustment Fund (CAF) grant from the federal government that will help us turn our dreams into a reality. Our sincere thank you to the Federal Government for this amazing gift. An estimated $1.5 million of this grant will be earmarked for salaries and wages employing where possible, local trades people thereby benefiting our community even further.

Construction has begun!
We would like to welcome our new Construction Manager, Bob Preston who has been hired and is now on site. The construction of the building has begun and the footings have been poured. Additionally, we now have a construction time line to work with and we fully anticipate that we will be moving in throughout the spring and Summer of 2010. For a visual look, check out our You Tube embedded herein. You can also follow the construction process monthly as we will share images as the building progresses and we move forward in anticipation of throwing open the front doors!

Project Funding
To date our community of parents, staff, people CLD supports, volunteers, TOV patrons, friends, various companies and foundations have pledged $604,000.00 to our capital campaign. With the recent federal government grant of 2.7 million, that brings our total fundraised dollars to 3.3 million. Total projected costs to completely finish the project including landscaping, high efficiency heating, walking trails and an outdoor amphitheatre, total approx 4.3 million. We are confident that with your continued support we will be able to make great strides towards our fundraising goal thus reducing our mortgage costs.

We couldn’t have done it without YOU!
A huge THANK YOU to all our donors who have donated funds, time and resources to our BDT Campaign. As you know, this is a vital and necessary project in our community and we could not have done it without YOU!!!
You are responsible for all that we have accomplished on this project and CLD, TOV and the community are extremely grateful for all your contributions.

We still need your help!
In kind donations, volunteers to assist with events and those who have gardening, interior decorating and other skills would certainly be appreciated as we make our way through this project. Please get in touch with us if you would like to participate.

ARTirondack Chairity Thank you

On behalf of everyone at Community Living Dufferin we offer our thanks to the community for your continued support of our 3rd annual ARTirondack Chairity fundraising event.
This year $3,128.00 was raised through our 4 raffles.

We offer our sincere thanks to members of CLD Options’ woodworking group for building the table and chairs, to the artists Karen B and Karen M-F for painting the table and chairs and the quilters of the Dufferin Piecemakers Guild.

Special thanks to the many volunteers who sold tickets to visitors at the Spring Home Show, the Farmers Market, Theatre Orangeville and to family and friends.

Thanks to the Orangeville Lions and the BIA for allowing us space to fundraise at the Home Show and Farmers Market.

Thanks to the members of Creative Partners on Stage for their support in affording us the opportunity to sell tickets during their performances of Beauty and the Beast at Theatre Orangeville.

And finally we offer congratulations to the 4 lucky winners.

Hibiscus table: Bea Chaney

Children’s Jungle Chair: Kathy Majeski

Adult Tropical Chair: Marie Taylor

Community Quilt: Ann Somerville

We are already working on ideas for our 4th annual ARTirondack Chairity Fundraising Event.

Keep checking back for news updates

Community Living Dufferin Fundraising Committee

QPAC ~ right on time

Just wanted to share some news with you about a contract recently completed in QPAC and what is possible when people work together towards a common goal.

Every year in late summer/early fall QPAC gets an order from William Prager to assemble boot weights. William Prager is a company that manufactures store fixtures and QPAC has been assembling boot weights for them for 5 years.

Typically W.P. requires 500 to 1000 pieces and QPAC employees have no problem completing an order of 1000 pieces in a week.

This year W.P. ordered 9000 and needed them in four weeks.

Needless to say, this put QPAC under some pressure and for the first time I had to inform W.P. that we would possibly have problems meeting their time line.

I am very happy to say QPAC employees and staff completed the job in the four weeks!

This accomplishment honestly comes as no surprise. The people who come to work at QPAC day in and day out are extremely dedicated, hard working and know the value of their work.

This applies to all the employees as there were other contracts with tight time lines being done as well as W.P.

It also applies to the staff who scheduled employees based on the their availability and ability to do a variety of jobs, deal with machinery that is needing constant repair and maintenance and several other factors that could have gone wrong and put the production schedule in jeopardy.

We send out a big THANK YOU to everyone at QPAC and couldn't resist sharing this story with everyone.

Ground Breaking on Dufferin Road

So here it is the official Ground Breaking!

We are on our way to "Building Realities Together"

Alzheimers Coffee Day

Community Living Dufferin each year participate in the Alzheimer Society Coffee Break event.

This years event will take place on National Coffee Break Day; Thursday September 17th from 1-2:30 pm at 29 Centennial Road, Unit 10, Orangeville.
Coffee and home made desserts will be available for a small donation to support this National fundraiser.

The Options participants and staff organize this fun event and this year they have gone all out with the creation of some one of a kind items.

These beautiful and truly unique items will be available for purchase through a live auction hosted by our favourite Auctioneer and a wonderful CLD supporter John Dunn.

The proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Alzheimers Society.

Come out, visit with friends, enjoy some live music and help to support the Alzheimers Society.

How QPAC makes a difference

Todd Matthews is an incredible man whom I help support through Community Living Dufferin.

I have gotten to know Todd much better by working closely with him through the Options program.

Todd has no difficulty expressing what he enjoys most in life. He loves his family, his sports and most importantly his job. Todd works at QPAC. I have never met someone who takes so much pride in his performance at work than Todd. He jumps at every opportunity to work extra hours at QPAC and sometimes slips over there to see if he can convince anyone that they need extra help. He keeps a tally of how much piecework he accomplishes in a day and proudly shows it to anyone who can afford a minute. He describes in great detail what he did during the day and is happy to go home at the end of the day feeling satisfied at a job well done. Todd is fond of all his co-workers and especially fond of Cor. Cor always encourages Todd and tells him genuinely that he has worked hard.

Todd’s biggest goal in life is to work full time at QPAC. The impact that QPAC has had in Todd’s life is monumental. When Todd is working he is happy and content. He feels useful and appreciated. Through Todd’s enthusiasm for his work he inspires others to rightfully find their own perfect job, because he certainly has found his.


Lately I have been given the opportunity to spend some time with Mason Matson. I knew very little about Mason. But after spending some time with him, there is one thing I know for sure, Mason loves his job at QPAC.

Mason loves to work and assures most people that he is a very hard worker.

He enjoys helping others but is clear that his main focus is to be spending as much time as he can at QPAC. QPAC is Mason’s sanctuary. Mason’s face lights up when referring to his job at QPAC. He describes in detail what he did for the day and encourages himself to do better at his next shift. He happily gets up in the morning and waits with anticipation as the van from QPAC comes to pick him up. Mason is regarded highly by his co-workers and support workers alike. Mason is proud to work at QPAC. It provides him with a sense of accomplishment, self-esteem and character. Mason sets a wonderful example for all employees.

Summer Photography

Here are just a few of the latest photos from our talented summer Photography group....

Building Dreams Together

To the left you will see a new link.

Thanks to Dickinson-Hicks we can now share the beautiful artists renditions of the new building we are working so hard to build.

Enjoy the 360 degree and aerial views of what our new "home" will look like.

ARTirondack Chairity Raffle winners

Congratulations

to the three lucky winners of the

ARTirondack Chairity Auction

held this week

Hibiscus table ~ Bea Chaney

Jungle kids chair ~ Kathy Majeski

Tropical Pond Adult chair ~ Marie Taylor

Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket for these raffles. We are happy to report that with your support we raised $2,100.00

We still have tickets available for the Community Living Quilt. Value $1,200.00

Draw will be held on September 3, 2009

Contact Karen for your tickets 519-941-8971 x 165

$2.00 each or 3 for $5.00

Photography 101

Capturing special images within our community this summer.

We have a new summer program this year in Options.

Photography.

And the photographers have shown a keen eye when scouting out "subjects".

Seen here are some wonderful shots of the Alton Mill in Alton, ON

We will continue to share the images here and invite you to post comments about the photographs which we will share with our budding, talented photographers.

Thanks to Sara for sharing her special knack of capturing these wonderful shots for us to enjoy!

Heather Katz and music

This week we were thrilled to welcome

Heather Katz

as our special guest performer at our weekly Music Group.

Heather played a large repetoire of favourites, both hers and ours for an hour.

We had a full house and thoroughly enjoyed the new songs that Heather chose to perform.

Rick, our weekly guitarist and singer enjoyed the opportunity to accompany her on guitar lending background vocals along with ours.

Ted, in his usual fine form performed his specialty "jig" to a song chosen just for him by Heather.

Barb followed him up on the dance floor to show us a few steps of her own.

It was a lively group with great music and lots of song and laughter.

A very special Thank you is extended to Heather who closed down her shop; Broadway Musical so that she could come and spend an hour of music with us.

Hockey Greats

A few of our biggest hockey fans were caught on film rubbing shoulders with some

NHL greats of yesteryear at a recent autograph signing here in town.

Pete Mahovolich, our very own local hockey star Dale Hawerchuk, Brad Park and Gerry Cheevers were all gracious enough to spend some time speaking with

and signing autographs for excited fans.

The meet and greet was held in conjunction with the Dale Hawerchuk Classic Golf Tournament, a charitable event in support of Headwaters Health Care Centre.

Donna's Divas of the Red Hat Society

The ladies of the Red Hat Society known as Donna’s Divas, attended their first official Red Hat Society gathering on Saturday May 2nd.

It was a party like no other; an UN-birthday party to celebrate the 364 days that are not your birthday.

There was food, games, music and dancing. The highlight of the day was when we dressed up our Queen Donna in a fabulous gown made of top quality toilet paper and then paraded her on stage for everyone to see. Donna looked amazing!

The ladies each received loot bags filled with a magic wand, bubbles, a feather pen, stickers and a tattoo.

Only at an UN-birthday party put on by the Red Hat Society is it ok to eat your cake before your lunch, they encourage this! Yum Yum

Now the red hats are once again put away, but only until the next event which takes place in September. The theme for this event is 70’s disco. Now that is an event to look forward to.

Donna’s Divas currently consists of: Donna R, Mary F, Rosemary B, Jane C, June H, Diane D and Mizue M, but there is always room for any ladies looking to have some fun!

Orangeville Flowers

Joanne and Martin Woudenberg of Orangeville Flowers located at 78 John Street have very generously offered to display our adult Tropical Chair and sell tickets for our fundraising raffle.

So if you haven't purchased your tickets yet, pay Orangeville Flowers a visit, purchase a ticket for your chance to win this fabulous chair.

While you are there take some time to smell the flowers, stroll through the heavenly scented rows awash with colour and beautiful greenery sure to brighten up your gardens both inside and out.






With Father's Day this Sunday, I don't know about your Dad but mine I know would love a bouquet of his favourite Daisies....so pick up some flowers or a new plant for your Dad's garden. Not the gardening type, check out the variety of wonderful, whimsical gifts. They've got something that is sure to please any Dad.

While you're there you'll notice that we are taking commissions for your very own version of the Hibiscus table. The tables are made of pine and handpainted, varathaned with 3 coats to give it a stunning sheen and added protection from the sun. With each purchase you will receive a $50.00 tax receipt. We will paint your choice of one large flower head as seen on the Hibiscus, your colour choice. $150.00 each.

Contact Karen Murphy-Fritz at Community Living Dufferin for more information.
519-941-8971 x 165 or karenf@communitylivingdufferin.ca

Farmers Market

Starting tomorrow and for the month of June we will have a table at the Orangeville Farmer's Market from 9am - 1pm.

We will be selling our raffle tickets for the ARTirondack chairs, Table and Quilt.

July 28th is the draw date for the 2 chairs and the table, and tickets are going fast.

If you haven't already bought yours, I would suggest you not wait any longer, come see us at the Market. Tickets are only $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00.

This is our big fundraising initiative of the year and we appreciate your support.

While your there support your local farmers and businesses too by purchasing some fresh, locally grown produce, sample some of the delicious fare that the many vendors offer to tantalize your sense of smell and taste.

And of course enjoy the many local shops along Broadway.

The weather is supposed to be glorious tomorrow, lots of sun and warm temperatures.

Reflections from Barry

At a recent screening of The Freedom Tour, hosted at Community Living Dufferin we celebrated the closures of the last 3 institutions which housed people with developmental disabilities on Ontario.

The Freedom Tour is an informative and very emotional film. It details the movement speerheaded by a growing group of people on a misison to have our Canadian government close once and for all the remaining institutions in the Prairie provinces.

With an intimate group of about 50 guests we welcomed Richard Beaudoin who led us in both prayer and remembrance as we honoured those people who lived and died in institutions. We also welcomed Barry Thachuk who spent a majority of his life in the Huronia Regional Centre (HRC) before coming to live in Orangeville.

Below is the speech which Barry prepared. Barry was very proud to share his thoughts with the guests and was grateful for the opportunity to honour those friends that he met and lost while he lived in the Huronia Regional Centre.
It is just a small account of his experiences and thoughts on life in an institution and the rights he enjoys now as a member of our community.

"Hello, my name is Barry Thachuk.

When I lived at HRC, one of the nurses forced me to eat when I was just a little boy.
Now, I don’t have to eat anything I don’t want to eat.

When I lived at HRC, sometimes I got locked up.
Now, nobody ever locks me up.

When I lived at HRC, I slept in a big dormitory.
Now I have my own bedroom.

The most important thing to remember about HRC is that “it’s an easy place to get into, but a hard place to get out of”.

Thank you!"

Take me out to the ball game....

Excitement filled the air at Dawson as Deborah, Janet, Ed and Mark (standing) awaited the trip to the Rogers Centre to watch the Blue Jays play against the Chicago White Socks on Sunday May 27, 2009.

We had terrific seats, 10 rows off of the left field baseline.

The Blue Jays played an awesome game winning 8 - 2 !

Our beautiful faces appeared on the Jumbotron!

The Blue Jays pitcher struck out the seventh batter in the seventh inning so everyone in the park won a free slice of pizza .

Building Dreams Together fundraising event

Please join us for an evening at the movies

as the Leaders for Change raise funds

with their screening of the acclaimed

Canadian film ONE WEEK

directed by local Dufferin County resident

Michael McGowan.

Proceeds will be donated to our

Building Dreams Together Capital Campaign

to build a home of our own.

Galaxy Cinema, Orangeville

Monday June 15, 2009

6:30pm

Tickets $10.00 each ($15.00 at the door)

Purchase tickets from:

CLD 29 Centennial Road 941-8971

Booklore 121 First St 942-3830

Frist Street Optical 98 First St 942-1476

Michael McGowan will be a special guest and available at the end of the film to answer any questions you may have.

Evening of Appreciation 2009

Last night we celebrated our staff, volunteers, employers and donors at our annual Evening of Appreciation at Monora Park. With a guest list of 178 people it promised to be a wonderful evening full of celebration.

We were honoured to welcome Dianne Garrels-Munro, President of Community Living Ontario who made a presentation to Community Living Dufferin of a plaque.

Sylvia Jones and David Tilson, MPP and MP for Dufferin County respectively were both in attendance to make certificate presentations to our two nominated volunteers, Kim Bailey and Sylvia Cheuy.

We had the honour of presenting to Sylvia Jones a plaque on behalf of Community Living Ontario to commemorate the closure of the last institutions in Ontario housing people with developmental disabilities.

Wade of Catering Designs offered a delicious and varied selection of hor's doeurves which were served by 8 hard working student volunteers. Kudos to servers extraordinaire: Jessie Sawyer, Samantha Ryan, Caitlin Fritz, Conner Fritz, Scott Slater, Zacharie Hopkins, Mitch Hopkins and working hard in the kitchen to ensure each plate was perfectly presented was Lizz VanOmmen.

Thanks to our greeters Mizue Mori, Glen Evans and Todd Matthews.

We offer congratulations and thanks to:

Staff who where nominated for and winning recipients of Staff Merit Awards

Staff who this year celebrate 5, 10, 15, 20 year anniversaries with CLD

Chris Gardiner who celebrates 25 years and thinks it has gone by in the "blink of an eye"

Brenda Stephenson and Huda Scott Scholarship recipients, Shannon McGrady, Karenda Carpenter, Sharon Coyle

Mason Matson for being nominated by his peers for the Ron Jordan Memorial Committment to Work Award

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Frank Guzzo of Gayla Canada Inc., recipient of the Employers Challenging Work Award for QPAC

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Mary Ann Lancaster who shared with all of us her experiences as a volunteer with Bethsaida Retirement Home and the Alzheimer's Society of Dufferin

Our very own CLD Quartet consisting of Rick Hopkins, Andree Ross, Judee Dyke and Eleanor Matte who closed the evening with some fantastic tunes bringing the guests to their feet and the hall echoing with lots of hand clapping and toe tapping

Thanks also to each and every one who assisted in the success of this great evening with your attendance and support. Given the ever increasing numbers of guests at our Evening of Appreciation each year, we are confident that next year we will need to find a new, bigger venue for us to celebrate in.