Minutes of March 10, 2014 Meeting

Posted by Susan Hazlett

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nash:

Welcomed and introduced Wasim Jarrah, the Newmarket Rotary President. Wasim handed out some flyers for their upcoming event at Yuk Yuk's on April 5. The evening includes dinner, dancing and the show for $30/ticket and will be at the Newmarket Community Centre at Riverwalk Commons in Newmarket. Please join them... all are welcome!
International Night is coming up May 9. See Richard for tickets. Paul T asked that everyone put their best efforts into selling all tickets. Paul T also volunteered to visit any other clubs to make a presentation.
Golf Tournament June 17. See Cyril for tickets. Cyril said that he has some sponsors so far, but more are needed. Please ask your contacts to sponsor at $250/hole.
Beer Fest date has now been set for July 17. Once again, it will be the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. More details to follow.
Progressive Dinner is this weekend so there will not be a meeting on Monday March 17. The envelopes for the progressive dinner were distributed by Ted and the after party will be at Hira's starting at about 10pm. All are welcome to the after party.
Reminder of the Board Meeting on Wednesday.

Glen:

The Rotary windbreakers are here and will be distributed over the next few meetings.

David O/Ted:

A special request for funding has come in to help a family in Richmond Hill dealing with juvenile diabetes. The funds would be used to assist in getting the family a service dog and possibly some help for the parent. Assistance from the JDRF is not available and other avenues for funding have been exhausted. The Board will review on Wednesday. A member made a personal pledge of financial support at the meeting.

SPEAKER - SUZANNE GAUDET, DEAFBLIND SERVICES OF ONTARIO

Suzanne explained that the DeafBlind Society assists clients who have "congenital" deafblindness, that is, people who have been deaf and blind from birth and who have never had hearing or sight. These clients present many challenges because they have no frame of reference to communicate or negotiate their world.

Suzanne says that their clients are all different and have different levels of ability, and therefore, each caregiver or "intervenor" has to be very specialized to each client.

The Society currently has 17 residences across Ontario and about 50+ clients. In the residences, which are designed to be small and homey rather than institutional, clients work on life skills with their intervenors. They learn how to communicate, how to clean their rooms, how to manage meals etc. The intervenors are a special breed of people and are very committed to their client's success. They have about 200 intervenors that provide 24 hour care to the clients. Suzanne says that some clients have no family and the Society and their intervenors will be their family for the rest of their lives.

Part of the Society's work is to plan for Sensory Excursions for their clients. These outings or experiences are chosen by the client themselves, and then planned for with their intervenor. Usually the clients pays for at least part of the outing and putting savings aside is part of the learning process also.

The Society's participation in the Achilles St. Patrick's Day Walk is to support some of these sensory excursions. Last year the Society was able to raise a total of $9,000. This year, our club again is happy to donate $500 for this initiative, and tonight a cheque was presented by President Nash.

Thank you Suzanne for coming to talk with us tonight and we are happy to be able to help support the DeafBlind Society.

NEXT MEETING: Reminder NO meeting next week. Next meeting is March 24 at Sheraton. Speaker will be Michael White re Oak Ridges Tree Planting