On Thursday, July 24th, as a final wrap-up and celebration of summer school, we hosted a barbeque for our young moms and their children. Our valued donors at TELUS provided funding to cover food costs, secured a barbeque for the day, and provided volunteer assistance! This particular group, known as the TELUS Community Ambassadors, meet regularly to dream up ways of helping their community, and they are entirely volunteer-driven.
TELUS Community Ambassadors with Chef Katie Brown-Ardington of Bectka.
TELUS Community Ambassadors gave their time and donations to help us make this barbeque a reality. Here they are presenting the cheque to Executive Director Cindy Simpson and Youville Centre clients Nikki and Brianna and their children Sophia and Avva.
The day began with a special show and tell for staff and volunteers from both of our summer school classes. The Hairstyling & Esthetics class opened up the “Youville Salon & Spa” for the morning, providing manicures, hairstyles, makeup tips and even paraffin wax treatments to students, staff, and volunteers.
Youville’s Mental Health and Addictions Counsellor, Jenny, receives a well-deserved manicure from summer school student Kristin.
After sorting, washing and organizing the clothing that is donated to the centre, dedicated volunteer Ria deserves a special treat – here she is receiving a paraffin wax spa treatment on her hands.
Staff members Leslie and Mollie, and volunteer Jane also enjoyed receiving manicures from the students.
The Drama class displayed their handmade sock puppets and showed videos of their activities in the course. The sock puppets were made as part of the “sock puppet theatre” unit of the course, where students wrote their own scripts, developed characters, designed and built sock puppets and mini film sets, and then performed the plays and filmed them using iMovie. The result was a variety of short plays featuring the very creative sock puppets, and comedic and dramatic storylines. The students thoroughly enjoyed incorporating technology into this project.
A screen capture of sock puppet theatre.
The videos played also featured a special Lion King musical performance with costumes and choreography that the drama students put on for their children earlier in the month. The course also included Shakespeare, improv and monologues. It was a unique opportunity for our students to build their confidence and express themselves creatively.
After the morning activites, the barbeque portion of the day began. The TELUS Community Ambassadors worked with Youville’s Chefs Kathy and Deb, and special guest Chef Katie Brown-Ardington from Bectka to provide chicken, veggie and beef burgers with all the fixings for our moms and their children.
Youville Centre’s resident Chef, Kathy, with Chef Katie Brown-Ardington of Beckta, and two of the TELUS Community Ambassadors.
Mason, a toddler in our Daisy program, thoroughly enjoyed his burger!
Beverages were generously provided by our new friends at PEPSI Canada, and of course, we had ice cream on hand as a special treat, served by Sarah Arden, Community Investment Manager at TELUS!
Child development staff set up a host of fun outdoor games for moms and babies to enjoy, including: face painting, slip ‘n slide, and a bubble machine.
Everyone enjoyed this festive event on such a beautiful, sunny day. Our friends from the Ottawa Police Service even dropped by to let our toddlers see the police car and its flashing lights!
Due to the generosity of a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, we were also able to book a very special guest for this year’s party — a pony! “Daybreak” traveled from Sundance Ranch and he brought his little friend the goat with him! These two special guests were a big hit with the moms and babies! Special thanks to Sundance and his family for making this possible.
