LiveWorkPlay For People With Intellectual Disabilities Making A Buzz In The Ottawa Community We've Been Growing Together Since 1995 ON OUR OWN TOGETHER II Interdependence - Independence - Self-Advocacy The Innovative LiveWorkPlay Approach To Long-Term Housing For People With Intellectual Disabilities June 17: Day 41 After all the anticipation the big day finally arrived. It was a shortened day at SMILE to give everyone time to get back to Carleton and help set up. It didn't take long before the empty room started to brighten up with the colourful posters and balloons. There was a bit of a scramble to get everything in place by 3:00. Rogers Television showed up at 2:30 to film a piece for the 6:00 pm edition of Ottawa Citizen Citydesk. Keenan did a remote interview with Ed Hand, and then the camera man stayed and took a tour when they started at 3:00. The New RO's Dave Stephens showed up just after 3:00 and spent a lot of time with Laura Stewart and her father Dave. It was kind of funny because while waiting for the open house to start up again at 6:30 some of the early arrivals were waiting in the lounge with Dave when the news came on and there he was! The 3:00-5:00 session was a great way to get started...there was a steady flow of visitors but it all stayed pretty calm. Everyone was really impressed with the poster displays, especially the personal remarks in the "realities" section at the bottom. And of course they loved the portraits. At 5:00 it was time to get ready for an early dinner. Most of the group was eating by 5:30 and back by 6:00 ready to rehearse two songs for the ceremony at 7:00. There was a ton of company for dinner and it was fun even if it was a bit of a rush. There were visitors of all kinds. Of course lots of family members, but also parents and participants from Journeys and ACES, colleagues and co-workers, and professionals like Julie Golding from Service Coordination and Pam Sherlow-Gahan from the Dual Diagnosis team at the ROH. Moira was surprised with some flowers from her co-workers which was really nice. At 6:30 the crowd was almost breaking down the doors. The energy level was high and the size of the tour groups got pretty big. It wasn't possible to start the ceremony right at 7:00 because so many tours were out. The first order of business was for the OOOT2 participants to sing a song that they wrote with Maria Hawkins who has been working on it with them for three weeks. It was done with enthusiasm and the crowd even started to clap along! Then it was time for a slide show but the computer had fallen asleep so the order was switched around and Dennise Taylor-Gilhen accepted thanks on behalf of the United Way and then Jean-Paul Gagnon did the same for the Ontario Trillium Foundation. When Jean-Paul used the word "dream" in his short speech the computer suddenly started cooperating so the lights went off for the slide show. It had a serious message with fun pictures. Margot Gallant liked it a lot and said that the choice of Corey Hart's Never Surrender as the musical accompaniment was really good. Before the ceremony concluded with one more song, Mike McBride stopped the proceedings and presented the LiveWorkPlay staff team of Dale, Fran, Keenan and Julie with a card and gift certificate as a token of the parents' collective appreciation. Then the participants let it all hang out and brought the ceremony to a close. The last 20 minutes was a zoo, with loud conversations breaking out all over the place, and some people trying to fit in a tour before 8:00. At 7:55 there was an announcement that Mike McBride could not find his keys, but within about 3 seconds a kindly soul had plucked them off one of the chairs and handed them in. Of course many of the participants who know Mike well took the opportunity to try and embarrass him as much as possible. Then it was clean up time, and with a few participants pitching in along with volunteers like Wendy and MJ it all got done by about 9:00. The Ottawa Renegades were on TV for their first regular season game against Winnepeg and some people were planning to stay up and watch. The Renegades won big, much to the chagrin of Cooper, a Bombers fan who had predicted a Winnepeg victory. It was quite a day. There's really just a week left. Just as everyone seems to have worked through a whole series of challenges the project is coming to a close. But it looks like everyone is ready for a rest, even if they are feeling good! PICTURES! What's this about? Robin's poster Busy place! Good work team! Thanks parents! Checking the displays Our friend Pam takes a closer look End of a long night Applause applause Thanks United Way Leading a tour Big group for dinner Laura hosts a big tour Thanks Trillium! Rachel leads a tour Ryan's posse Very busy Singing out loud Found them! Keenan on the tube