It’s all about Awareness
Unfortunately, this Big Kids Club season is coming to an end 🙁 and we’ve been doing our best to develop the necessary super powers for the winter.
So we packed our snacks, water, umbrella and stopped by the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities (Easter Seals House) to learn about the different super powers that children develop while they spend some time in this facility, either because they need medical treatment or surgery, or because they are facing a serious illness or trauma.
Just so you know, Easter Seals Houses (located in Vancouver & Victoria) provide a low cost, caring place to stay for parents and children, with professional and sweet staff, big rooms and playrooms!
We were welcomed at the front door and soon we got to see all the spaces and playrooms and I must say (and I think all the kids agreed on this one), no wonder these amazing kids have so many super powers! The playrooms are so advanced! Just as advanced as “Bat Bear” 😆
Back at Buddings headquarters…
How important do you think it is for a kid to know how to treat/help someone in a wheelchair or any alternate ability? Do you think that people with an alternate ability could be considered heroes?
As a teacher and human, I think is very important and yes, they are…who knows?! We might run into someone who needs help in the Sky train, bus, sidewalk and just when we are about to reach out to them and help, they can activate their super powers and manage to work it out on their own. It’s amazing.
For this lesson, my inspiration was Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and humanitarian who in 1980, after having one of his legs amputated, embarked a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research…wait, wait…cross-Canada?
Oh, yes! And the best part is that his brother joined him too…but, he was way back, in a van, following him wherever he went.
And what was the whole point of doing more cancer research? Well, it’s not just cancer, it was all about awareness. Children should be aware of cases like this, where consequences mean learning a new ability, surviving and keep going. In fact, Terry Fox once said:
“Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue. It’s got to keep going without me.”
Now, you’re probably thinking: how can we help? … well… one word: AWARENESS.
We started with something simple and that is how to react if we get to be in front of someone with an alternate ability. For this activity, my friends: Sylvie, Josiah, Max, Will, Carter and Arianna helped me list the most important things to keep in mind if we ever come across some with a cane, wheelchair, guide dog, nurse…
- Smile (all the time), people with “eye” super powers can sense if we smile or not.
- Say hello (we can ask why the wheelchair, with a nice smile of course).
- Ask if they need any help.
- Make sure you say good bye!
In order to practice some of the things we’ve learned, my friend “Arroyo” and Ben (his guide dog) planned to meet at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch at 2:30 p.m. (Here’s a photo of the first time I met Ben).
We walked around the library as we waited for our friends and got a chance to go over our list, share a few experiences about people with special super powers and honestly, I felt really happy to hear that the kids really felt this Big Kids Club lessons as much as I did, it felt very rewarding 🙂
Sadly, Arroyo & Ben didn’t make it on time and we had to travel back to our headquarters but don’t panic, they’ll come to Buddings soon and hopefully they’ll be part of our final classes.
Join us ! Thursdays 1 – 4pm, smiles included!
