President’s Message for October 2009 Newsletter:

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 3rd Annual Christmas “Pot-luck” Dinner last December 8th, 2008 with turkey & all the trimmings, ham, meatballs, scalloped potatoes, veggies, salads, lots of desserts from Christmas baking, cakes, fresh fruit and cheeses!  We also had a Christmas gift exchange but with a little twist… the value of the gift was only $1.00!  How it was played… when a name was drawn… that person would come up and pick a wrapped gift… and then draw the next person’s name… and on and on!  Once back at your seat… you would open your gift.  then it was up to individuals to mutually “swap” gifts, if they wanted too!  THANK YOU to the Membership and Guests for all the great food!  It was a lot of FUN!  We hope to do it all over again on December 14^th, 2009!  So mark this date on your calendar!

SRA June Picnic:  We held our 8^th SRA Annual Picnic on Monday, June 8^th, 2009… but since our usual site was being renovated… we rented a cozy room in the ACT Aquatic Centre at Rundle Park.  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 Sobey’s (Beaumaris) donated all the hotdog buns and Save-On-Foods (Oxford) donated 5 cases of pop!  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, desserts and extra refreshments!  Thank you also to all the Volunteers who helped with the picnic set up & take down!  This year… once again… we donated all the leftover picnic food to the Youth Emergency Shelter and gave them a “picnic” too!  All in all a great outing with great food and great company!  Try and join us next year on June 7^th, 2010!

Monthly Meetings:  Our programs this past fiscal year had lots of variety:  September we had a Presentation and Video on “Learn more about ETS and DATS” with Margaret Dorey; October was our Annual General Meeting, with Election of Officers, followed by our guest speaker Rhondda Jones, Stroke Service Coordinator updating us on the “Capital Health Regional Stroke Program and what it means to you?”; November Desmond Chow gave us an “Investment Seminar” and December we held our 3rd Annual Christmas Potluck Dinner!  For a change the weather co-operated and we did have a January meeting… we celebrated “Chinese New Year” with Fred & Alice Chow spoiling us with delicious Chinese food and each person who attended received a small red/gold envelope with a coin inside for “Good Luck”; February was our Annual “Tax Talk” with Zack Holtzman; March we had “CRIS” Program updates with Kirstin Safinuk, Speech Language Pathologist; April we had Dietician Linda Mah-Mills from the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital talk about “Healthy Eating”; May we had Dr. Arthur Prochazka, Professor in Neuroscience at the University of Alberta talk about “Tele-Rehabilitation and Stroke Research” and June was our 8^th Annual Picnic!  Last month, September, we had the Executive Directors from E.B.I.R.S., N.A.B.I.S. and NETWORKS (Resource Groups) providing information on their services for the Stroke Survivor and Persons with a Brian Injury!  Once again it has 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.  Although we are a “non-profit” organization we still have some necessary expenses that have to be paid.

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… Ms Gladys Marie Magega, President of the SRA of Edmonton   

News from SRA Alberta

I serve as SRA Edmonton’s representative on the board of the Stroke Recovery Association of Alberta (SRAA). It is an active board of representatives from most Alberta Stroke Recovery groups. We meet by teleconference several times a year (usually quarterly) and once a year in Calgary (this year we met in June). Frank Nieboer is the president of this group.  It has been an interesting year as this is the first complete year that Erin Palashniuk has served as a part time office coordinator for SRAA.  Erin has been busy getting to know us all by visiting most of the SRA groups in the province as well as organizing the SRAA group meetings, getting funding for the group, coordinating workshops etc. The biggest event of the year was the peer support workshop in Calgary on September 18 in Calgary. Over 30 people attended this 1.5 day leadership workshop. Alice and Fred Chow and Shawn McCreight were the Edmonton representatives; I also attended the workshop. News that the Alberta Provincial Stroke Strategy (APSS) has once again allocated monies for stroke public awareness sessions to be developed and implemented by local SRA groups is exciting! Some of you will remember the Stroke Awareness workshop that our group sponsored in April 2007 at the Northgate Lions Seniors Centre. SRAA is also investigating alternate organizational models for stroke recovery groups in Alberta. You will hear more about this later in the year.

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

Bev Decore  (780) 434-9892

Upcoming Meeting:  SRA – Edmonton’s Annual General Meeting Monday, October 26^th, 2009:

1.  Election of Executive Officers.

2.  Special Guest Speaker - Gail Elton-Smith, Stroke Service Coordinator, Stroke Program, Edmonton Area, Alberta Health Services will update information for “Stroke Survivors Living in the Community”.

3.  Our Guest Speaker -Jim Czelenski, Fire Inspector and Public Education Officer, Fire Rescue Services/Fire Prevention will talk on “General Fire Safety in the Home”.

Please come out and join us!  We look forward to seeing you and please bring a guest!

General Meetings:  Held in Conference Room A (lower level) Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital at 7 p.m.  Refreshments are available from 6:30 p.m.

For more information, please call (780) 485-3052.