Vol. 12  No. 7                                                                                                                                October 2008

Welcome to the Stroke Recovery Association of Edmonton – Support Group!  We had another active year and here are a few of the highlights:

Christmas Potluck Dinner:  We held our 2nd Annual Christmas “Pot-luck” Dinner last December 10^th, 2007 with turkey & all the trimmings, ham, meatballs, scalloped potatoes, veggies, salads, lots of desserts from Christmas baking, cakes, fresh fruit and cheeses!  It was a lot of fun and everyone received a small gift!  Thank you again to the Membership and Guests for all the great food!  We plan to do it all over again on December 8^th, 2008!  So mark this date on your calendar!

SRA June Picnic:  We held our 7^th Annual Picnic at Rundle Park on June 9^th, 2008!  Once again we were fortunate to have M & M Meat Shops (Namao Centre and Northgate Centre) donate all the wieners, shrimp rings, shrimp sauce and cream puffs!  Plus Palisades Safeway once again donated all the hotdog buns, condiments, napkins, paper plates and glasses!  We encourage everyone to shop at these stores as our “thank you” for their generous donations to our Annual Picnic!  Thank you to our Membership and Guests who brought delicious salads, snacks and desserts!  Thank you also to Joan McCreight and Michele Clapp for donating all the draw prizes and again everyone went home with a small gift!  This year - with all our leftover picnic food we donated it to the Youth Emergency Shelter and gave them a “picnic” too!  All in all a great outing with great food and great company!

Monthly Meetings:  Our program this past fiscal year had lots of variety:  September we had a “Hobby Night” and that was lots of fun; October was our Annual General Meeting, with Election of Officers, followed by our guest speaker Agnes Joyce, Regional Stroke Service Coordinator updating us on the “Capital Health Regional Stroke Program and what it means to you?”; November we had guest speaker Janice Bell, Director of Volunteer Edmonton talking on “Building healthy communities through volunteerism ... one volunteer at a time” and December we held our 2^nd Annual Christmas Potluck Dinner!  Unfortunately, due to miserable Alberta winter weather our January meeting had to be cancelled; February we had “Tax Talk” with Zack Holtzman; March we had Tim McCreight who educated us on “Telephone and Computer Fraud”; April we had a “Video Night with popcorn” enjoying Fred and Alice Chow’s pictures from their China trip; May we had Andrea Ruelling (married now, but was Brown), Speech Therapist from the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital informing us about “Aphasia Awareness” and June was our 7^th Annual Picnic!  Last month, September, we had Margaret Dorey as our guest speaker on “Learn more about ETS and DATS”!  So it’s been a very full year!

Our Membership fee is very reasonable:  $10.00 for single and $15.00 for family.  For those wishing to join or renew their membership PLEASE see Fred or Alice Chow (the Treasurers) at our meetings and they will gladly take your membership money, get you paid-up in “good standing” and provide you with an income tax receipt.  Any and all donations are appreciated and you will be given an income tax receipt for them.  By the way, would you like to volunteer to be on the SRA of Edmonton Board, be a part of the phoning committee, or a meeting greeter?  Please let me know.  Reminder – the SRA’s Executive and Board Members are all Volunteers!

Bye4now… Gladys Marie Magega, Current President of the SRA of Edmonton – Support Group    

The SRA of Edmonton - Support Group wishes to recognize our valuable Newsletter Editor Craig Roxburgh and to give him a huge Thank you for all his years of dedication doing our monthly Newsletters and keeping up our Website!  Every newsletter for years has Craig’s stamp on it…from design, formatting, getting external articles and doing special items for us.  He has done a tremendous job and we all appreciate his commitment for SRA of Edmonton and his fabulous editing skills.  Craig has decided to follow some other interests and will no longer be able to do our monthly Newsletters or Website as of December 31^st, 2008.  Craig leaves behind some very big shoes that we need filled by January 1^st, 2009.  If anyone knows of someone that would be willing to take over these 2 positions… it is on a volunteer basis, please let me know!  Thank you!  We all wish Craig our very best!

The SRA Alberta board met by teleconference on October 9, 2008.  It is an active board of representatives from most of the Alberta Stroke Recovery groups.  I am the representative for the Edmonton group.  Frank Nieboer is the president of the Stroke Recovery Alberta group.  The biggest news this year is that we have got some funding to be able to hire a part time office coordinator.  Erin Palashniuk from Calgary was hired in the early fall and will be busy this year developing a work plan and visiting most of the SRA groups in the province.  The focus of activities this year will be to get funding to support peer support workshops in Alberta and hopefully a Best Practices workshop for Alberta SRA groups next spring.  News that the Alberta Provincial Stroke Strategy (APSS) has allocated monies for stroke awareness and/or other community initiatives to be generated by local SRA groups is exciting too.  More about all these initiatives in the coming months.

Please call me if you have any questions about activities of the SRA Alberta board.

Bev Decore  (780) 434-9892

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

October 27^th, 2008 guest speaker is Rhondda Jones, Regional Stroke Service Coordinator, Regional Stroke Program, Capital Health and she will provide us with a Capital Health update for Stroke Survivors living in the Community.

Rhondda is an Occupational Therapist who has worked many years at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital.  She has worked primarily on the Stroke Outpatient Program but initially began as an OT on the Stroke Inpatient Program.  Rhondda also has a background in Massage and Shiatsu Therapy.  She is currently working as a Regional Stroke Service Coordinator with the Regional Stroke Program.