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.
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
Frank Guzzo of Gayla Canada Inc., recipient of the Employers Challenging Work Award for QPAC
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.
Recently Vicky held an Epicure Fundraising event in support of Community Living Dufferin's Building Dreams Together project.
That’s a pretty good start to a Saturday morning in our books.
Organized and sponsored by The Rotary Club, Tim Horton’s, The Town of Orangeville and the B.I.A., “Make Orangeville Shine Day, 2009” was a huge hit.
After our complimentary coffees, we were given the choice of which area of Orangeville we’d rather “put a shine on”.
We chose our home turf, grabbed some garbage bags, gloves and set out to make things just a little bit nicer.
The spring thaw uncovered some pretty interesting (and at time, shocking) stuff.
Conversations of “whose bag is heavier?”, “who found the coolest junk?” and “just what WAS that?” filled the air.
Before we knew it, it was lunch time, we’d run out of garbage bags, and it was back to Rotary Park for a free lunch.
Good company, (and companies) made our morning memorable, and we’re looking forward to both new and familiar faces to join us next year.
