2011 Auction Fund-an-Item: Day Support Program
Part of our community’s mission statement calls us to “make known the gifts of people with developmental disabilities” and to “engage in our diverse cultures.” In an effort to focus more on this area of our life together, we now have a Recreation/Day Support Assistant at L’Arche Tahoma Hope and this year’s auction Fund-an-Item was to support this dimension of our community life. For the past few months, I’ve been blessed to be in that role and to explore what exactly it will entail.
The journey has been enlightening and very exciting thus far. With the help of everyone in the community, I’m helping core members pursue activities and opportunities that are sources of growth and fulfillment for them, whether by continuing to participate in existing relationships and activities, or discovering new interests and places of involvement. By focusing on enriching our daily lives, we can continue to make L’Arche Tahoma Hope a sustainable community and foster an ever-widening circle of relationships in the greater Tacoma community.
Our community has a lot of gifts and interests to share, and it’s been very exciting to see all the opportunities and gifts Tacoma has to share with us. I’m enthusiastic about developing a relationship with Pacific Lutheran University (PLU), only a few miles away in the Parkland area, as well as continuing to explore the offerings of MetroParks and TACID, two organizations that have many opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities. Some core members have started attending TACID’s Friday movie club, which has been a great success. It’s hard not to have fun when munching on popcorn and watching Gene Kelly tap away to “Singin’ in the Rain!” MetroParks has some great facilities and classes available, and making our lives enjoyable and sustainable also entails keeping our bodies healthy and happy. Kai Ponnikas and I have started attending the open swims at Eastside pool, where there’s plenty of opportunity for water games and racing, as well as post-workout soaks in the hot tub. There’s always more to explore with existing activity offerings, and I’m looking forward to the exciting outdoor opportunities we will have this summer, both for enjoying our beautiful surroundings and engaging in the Tacoma community.
We’re having a good time with each other as well. For St. Patrick’s Day, a group of us got together in the afternoon to bake traditional Irish soda bread, read a fairy tale from Ireland and dance to some Irish folk tunes. It was a blast—we measured, mixed, and kneaded loaves for each house to take home with them (and it was even more fun to sample our work). At the end of March, we had our own “March Madness” with a friendly bracket competition and a couple of basketball games. And there’s nothing like group sing-alongs—with the music ability at L’Arche Tahoma Hope, we’ve produced excellent renditions of “You Are My Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” and “Proud Mary,” to name a few.
I’ve barely touched the tip of the iceberg, but there’s a wealth of life-enriching relationships and opportunities out there for the core members and community of L’Arche Tahoma Hope. We engage in some of them already and are excited for our new opportunities. I have the fortunate (and fun) role of helping our core members find and keep sources of joy in their everyday lives and share that joy with all of Tacoma. I hope our paths cross with yours in the near future and you can join us for our daily doses of fun and fulfillment! If you have any ideas of ways we can connect with the larger Tacoma community, please e-mail me at fun@larchetahomahope.org!
by Siri Carlson, Recreation/Day Support Assistant
(taken from the Spring, 2011 Soundings/Community Review).