West Toronto KEYS to Inclusion, together with their many friends and supporters, celebrated on the evening of Wednesday Oct 3 2012 at the Community Junction, owned and operated by Community Living Toronto.
KEYS stands for ( Knowledge + Experience = Your Success). We believe that neighbourhood opportunities for knowledge and work / volunteer / social experience are KEYS to the successful creation of strong, vibrant communities which include people of ALL abilities.
And there was cause for celebration:
1. KEYS is celebrating its first Birthday of Lunch n Learn at the Junction. – 5 years ago a dream was shared by 8 families whose young adult was graduating from high school and wanted to be active and visible in the community. Lunch n Learn kicked off in September 2011 with Meghan Bruni as the Leader. Today the many talents of Jenny Saundercook lead our participants to new discoveries about themselves, their community and nutritious and delicious meal planning and preparation. Much of this has been made possible because of our second success –
2. KEYS’ wonderful partnership with Community Living Toronto who so generously have given us the beautiful shared space at Community Junction to use daily for KEYS’ Lunch ‘n Learn. In addition, Community Living Toronto has provided invaluable volunteers to assist at Lunch’n Learn as well as collaboration with KEYS to create choices for our young adults…the most recent being – the monthly Friday night social called Function at the Junction..you are welcome to attend – if you are under 30 J.
3. Our most important success is KEYS’ participants and their abilities– A picture is worth a thousand words so let’s watch this 5 minute video – created by Ihor Macijiwsky. It captures the spirit of our stars and KEYS to Inclusion!
Thank YOU to all of our friends…including the many prize sponsors who are listed at the end. It is through your generous support that our participants continue to have keys to good cooking, to continued learning, keys to friendships and keys to community placements in the neighbourhood.
An evening like this could not have happened without the tremendous team effort of the Friendraiser Planning team led by KEYS’ Treasurer and Fundraiser extraordinaire Susan Spencer Macijiwsky. Cindy Abols, Christine Miokovic, Janis Todd, and Amanda Salzberger all contributed over the last three months their creativity, their contacts and their energies to make the evening magical – THANK YOU!
We believe that neighbourhood opportunities for knowledge and work / volunteer / social experiences are KEYS to the successful creation of strong, vibrant communities which include people of ALL abilities.
The monies raised will give us more keys to help open doors of opportunity for our young adults with an intellectual disability…doors to learning, friendship and active community participation.
We hope YOU can join us at our next celebration – stay tuned!
Best wishes,
Hélène Paulyn Murray
President
