[D9640general] FW: [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 1054

[Garry & Anne Krischock]

ü Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail 

 

 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary;_ylc=X3oDMTJkYnU1MWlpBF9TAzk3Mz
U5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BHNlYwNoZHIEc2xrA2hwaARzdG
ltZQMxMjgwMTU0MjE3> eFlash Rotary 


Messages In This Digest (1 Message) 


1. 1924 : A home away from home From: Sunil 


Posted by: "Sunil"
<mailto:sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk?Subject=%20Re%3A1924%20%3A%20A%20home%20away%
20from%20home> sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk
<http://profiles.yahoo.com/sunilkzach> sunilkzach 


Sun Jul 25, 2010 5:02 pm (PDT) 


For Cameron Wilson, the Ottawa Rotary Home has become a second home. Wilson,
20, has cerebral palsy; he's also blind, developmentally delayed, and uses a
wheelchair. 

He first stayed at the home when he was four years old. His mother, Joan,
cheerfully describes her daily routine: cutting up his food, changing his
diapers, and checking on him in the middle of the night - except during his
visits to the Ottawa Rotary Home. 

Rotarians in Ottawa opened the home in 1982 - when the concept of respite
care was new - to provide overnight relief to families whose children have
severe physical disabilities or other complex medical conditions. "You have
to look after the caregivers," says Patricia Boomer, a member of the Rotary
Club of Ottawa and past chair of the home's board of directors. "They need a
break sometimes. They need support. It doesn't mean they want to give up
their child." 

Joan and her husband use the respite time to go on vacation with their two
daughters, attend the girls' soccer tournaments and piano recitals, and deal
with family emergencies. Last year, Joan hurt her back while moving her
160-pound son, and again, they turned to the Ottawa Rotary Home for support
while she recovered. 

She credits the home with providing a sense of balance between Cameron's
needs and the rest of the family's. "If it hadn't been for Ottawa Rotary
Home, I don't know how healthy our family would be," she says. "The home has
alleviated an incredible amount of stress in our lives and for other
families as well." 

Since 1922, the Ottawa club has focused on helping children with
disabilities, supporting a local summer camp and Easter Seals over the
years. 

The home opened with 8 beds, later expanding to 12 and quickly becoming a
model for respite care. "For years, people have come to us and asked, `How
do you do this, how do you do that, how does it work?'" Boomer says. 

In 2007, the Ottawa Rotary Home Foundation launched a capital campaign to
build a larger facility. Over 18 months, it raised $2.3 million (surpassing
its goal of $2 million) from 11 Rotary clubs in eastern Ontario, individual
Rotarians, families who use the home, and other donors. 

With additional funding from several major donors and the government, along
with a land donation of 5 acres by a Rotarian, the $6.5 million project
opened in February 2009. The original home also was renovated for adult
residential care, for a total of 29 beds serving more than 200 families. 

The new 18,000-square-foot building offers plenty of space and
state-of-the-art features, such as a Snoezelen multisensory room, which uses
combinations of gently stimulating colour, light, sound, shape, and texture
to enhance therapy, learning, and relaxation. 

In 2008, the facility received a United Way Community Builder Award and the
Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Not-for-Profit Organization of the Year Award. 

Source : Rotary Canada - July 2010 / Courtesy : eFlash_Rotary 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 9942 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://rotary9640.org/pipermail/d9640general_rotary9640.org/attachments/20100727/554a6504/attachment.bin>