The LiveWorkPlay Top 22 of 2022 – Special Edition – The LiveWorkPlay News – January 24, 2023
Join TLN co-hosts Steven MacPhee and Keenan Wellar for this special broadcast of The LiveWorkPlay News in front of a live Zoom audience!
I’m Keenan Wellar.
And I’m Steven MacPhee.
And this is…
The LiveWorkPlay News!
Our next broadcast was not scheduled until the Winter Family Feast in March, but January can be a long hard month for everyone, so we decided to take look back at 2022 and share our top 22 stories of the year!
OK, let’s get started. As always, a reminder that our countdowns are based on analytics from our Facebook page. Many of our stories are also popular on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The popularity of any story, image, or video depends on many different factors – if your favourite did not make the list, please know that it doesn’t make it any less important. This list is just for fun.
Thanks for that reminder, Keenan, first on our list at number 22 is an awesome scene from patio season, with Tim Siebrasse, John Cholmondeley, Paul Hamilton, Emily Menard, and Rayan Al Hasan enjoying some patio time back in July.
I love seeing that, Stephen. At number 21, LiveWorkPlay board member Andrea Saldanha delivered our March 8, 2022, commemoration of International Women’s Day with a powerful speech that was shared widely on all our social media channels.
Andrea is so awesome Keenan. At number 20, posts on our Facebook page showing the film crew from the Family Support Network for Employment, who were in Ottawa with LiveWorkPlay members, staff, and employment partners in December, generated a ton of social media buzz just before the Christmas holidays.
Speaking of awesome, at number 19 is our March edition of The LiveWorkPlay News which featured co-host Ryan Nevitt, broadcasting all the way from Halifax, and included the breaking news that Sarah Nkanza was joining our staff as a member of the employment team!
Keenan, I am going to do number 18 and 17 together, because they are both stories about our wonderful friends at Multifaith Housing Initiative. First was the news of their successful bid to develop affordable housing at Lebreton Flats, which will one day be home to some of our members! Second was our post helping to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Way to go MHI!
At number 16, our Winter Family Gathering had a huge online turnout, as everyone tuned in for announcements and fun, with a live performance by Tyler Kealey, and a moving tribute to Eleanor Pinsonneault who passed away on February 21.
Royce Rinne is always a popular LiveWorkPlay, social media influencer, and his announcement that Benny the Cat was moving in with him received an overwhelming response and came in at number 15 on the countdown!
Back in January 2022 we celebrated the third work anniversary for Claudia Bryan, an Executive Assistant and Administrative Officer at Health Canada, who matched to her job by the LiveWorkPlay employment team. We also announced that we were getting close to the milestone of 150 jobs with the federal government. So much great news!
You knew the June family barbecue at TD Place was going to be somewhere on this list, and here it is at number 13. It was our first time back together since 2019 and we all had a blast, including the staff recognition ceremony, where many members of the team hired between 2020 and 2022 were introduced to the LiveWorkPlay community in person for the very first time!
What do you get when you put Joshua Gray, Joelle Perrier, Mary Gusella, and Anna Nelson together at The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices conference? You get a packed house tuned in to their presentation, and you get #12 on our countdown!
Well, how about that, it was Keenan’s 25th work anniversary, and a brief retrospective about you journey since founding the organization with Julie Kingstone and starting your full-time jobs in 1997 was interesting enough to make it to #11 on our list!
Look out Steven, I think we’ve got breaking news!
That’s right Keenan let’s go to our breaking news reporter, Julie Kingstone!
This is Julie Kingstone reporting for T L N. I interrupt this broadcast with some breaking news. Number 20 on our Top 22 of 2022 countdown featured the Family Support Network for Employment, who were in Ottawa in December to shoot a video series with LiveWorkPlay and our partner employers at Michaels and Finance Canada. Well, I’ve just been provided a sneak peak with clips from two of the videos, and I’m going to share that with you right now!
I can’t wait to see the rest of these videos, and want to offer congratulations to all concerned, especially Darcy and Nadine, for following your employment dreams and continuing to learn and advance in your careers. Now, back to the studio with Steven and Keenan!
Thank you, Julie, for that breaking news report, now let’s get back to our top 22, we are now at number 10!
What an honour it was for members of our team to travel to Fredericton and support the first staff retreat in three years for Inclusion New Brunswick! It was an amazing three days, and everyone enjoyed seeing the colourful images and big smiles on their faces as they learned about the LiveWorkPlay Just Enough Support approach to housing, community, and employment.
Number 9 on our list was just last month, our first time back together at St. Anthony’s Banquet Hall since 2019! It was also our first ever live countdown for The LiveWorkPlay News, while everyone enjoyed a delicious meal and music by Kenny Hayes.
As chair of the Ottawa Developmental Services Network, or own Julie Kingstone launched the first of five learning sessions with local family networks, and it was not only popular with those who attended, but people loved reading about it on Facebook, so much so that it came in at #8 on the countdown!
Coming in at #7 is our annual World Down Syndrome Day message, which was delivered by Daniel Pinsonneault. This was so popular it got shared by many of our partner organizations and individuals and agencies all over the world!
At number 6, it’s the June outdoor barbecue at TD Place again, this time, it was for the huge photo album that brought in thousands of views and was also a popular cover image for our Facebook page for the summer.
Coming in at number 5 was the story about the filming of a BBC video about accessible transit, featuring Daniel Pinsonneault, his sister Simone, and many of Daniel’s friends who made their way down to the Byward Market for a scene at a local pub. Although this story did not get the most views on our list, it did get the most comments of any of our stories in 2022.
Right before the Christmas break, the LiveWorkPlay community went wild for this good news story that Matt Suttie had signed a new contract with Costco, moving from a seasonal employee to permanent part-time. That smile says it all!
Coming in at #3 was the presentation of the Rob More Good Life award, presented by Rob’s parents in celebration of his amazing life that ended much too soon. But Rob’s memory carries on and is also brought to life with the annual awarding of a special trophy that honours a member of LiveWorkPlay who has embraced Rob’s values of living life to the fullest. In 2022 the award went to Paul Knoll, in recognition of his post-retirement life as an artist, advocate, and community champion.
Coming it at #2, this news just blew the virtual roof right off our Facebook page and Facebook group, when everyone learned that at long last, Michael Hinchcliff moved to a home of his own. His mom helped set it up with wall-to-wall presentations of Mike’s artwork, and the photos were so beautiful there were happy tears all over the internet.
Our #1 story is a case where sometimes plans that go wrong lead to something special. After the popularity of the June BBQ at TD Place, LiveWorkPlay found a narrow window to squeeze in another BBQ on September 8. Speeches were written, the musician was booked, and many plans were made. But that date coincided with the start of the City Folk music festival in the park right next door, so we put the microphones back in the box, and we just enjoyed each other’s company, kicked back with some cool beverages on a beautiful fall evening, played some soccer and football, and filled up at the buffet. Everyone had a blast and loved the photos so much that it was our top story of the year!
And that’s our top 22 of 2022. I want to thank my co-host Steven MacPhee, and we’ll see you for our next full broadcast of The LiveWorkPlay News at the Winter Family Feast in March 2023!
I’m Keenan Wellar.
And I’m Stephen MacPhee.
And this has been…
The LiveWorkPlay News.