By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On October 8, Woodview Mental Health and Autism Services held its third annual Family Fall Fair; this year, the organization also unveiled its new Sensory Room.
The room was updated through a fundraising campaign that started last year and was funded by nine different donors.
Woodview displayed a sign in their gym thanking all of the organizations who contributed to the fundraiser, including Unity for Autism, the major donor, and the “revitalization donors” Burlington Helping Burlington (BHB), Halton Honda, and AB Sports Bar, among others.
Julie Neal, a member of BHB, kickstarted the group’s donation and surprised Woodview with another cheque for $2500 at the unveiling ceremony.
Michelle Bake-Murphy, the communications and fundraising manager at Woodview, explained the thought process behind the fair.
“[It’s] our way of turning an annual general meeting on its head,” Bake-Murphy said. “We want to make it fun for families. We’ve got a petting zoo, a bouncy castle, a youth zone, and pumpkin painting. We’ve got a live band — Camo Tangerine is here today. Of course, it rained a little bit. We had to have some contingency plans happen. But you know what? The wet weather did not dampen our spirits at all.”
Kelvin Galbraith, Ward 1 councillor, spoke at the event, along with Samantha Humphreys, a mother of a child who participates in Woodview’s programming, who spoke about how the sensory room has impacted her child’s ability to manage their emotions.
Bake-Murphy elaborated on the fundraising journey for the sensory room.
“We began the campaign one year ago today,” Bake-Murphy said. “And it’s been a phenomenal experience. We were able to fundraise in just a few short months. It did take some time to get all of the equipment delivered because these are specialty items. They were chosen with great care and we spoke to our autism specialists to ensure that the equipment that we were picking was ideal for the children that we serve, who are 0 to 18 [years old] with autism.”
Several youth engagement tables were also set up around the event, with ambassadors stationed at them encouraging other teenagers to join their team.
The engagement team designed colouring books that could be purchased for five dollars, with all the proceeds going to support Woodview.
Lindsey Court, the principal and program manager at Woodview, explained the significance of this new sensory room.
“Our students have this energy where they can’t sit and focus and do an hour’s worth of work,” Court said. “They need their sensory breaks.”
Woodview installed its first sensory room seven years ago, but according to Court, the current room is much improved and “elevated” compared to the first iteration.
“They were able to come down here, spend 15 minutes, get the sensory input of jumping and getting all the balls put on them and having that calming sensation, even just being in a dark space with the lights, if you just need quiet for a second before you go to your next task,” Court said.
“The biggest, most consistent feedback we get when anyone comes to tour our school is how quiet the hallways are, and how quiet our classrooms are,” Court continued. “Our students are very at peace and settled in doing their work because they have the opportunity to come and get out some of that gross motor [and] fine motor energy here.”
Court also said that Unity for Autism also funded a new rock-climbing wall in Woodview’s gym, which provides a safe place for students to climb when they need to release some more energy.
Neal told the story of how BHB got involved in the sensory room fundraiser.
Neal participated in a tour of the facility last November with Bake-Murphy and noticed that the old sensory room was “much loved.”
Bake-Murphy then told Neal about the fundraiser, which was starting the following Friday. They were $5000 away from their goal.
“I left, called my team and I’m like, ‘We gotta make this happen,’” Neal said.
Neal reached out to Clinton Howell, the then-president of the Rotary Club of North Burlington, who gave the group $1500 and David Copperthwaite, the owner of AB Sports Bar, who also donated to the cause.
“And this is where the real magic comes in,” Neal said. “I happened to go to Black Swan in the North Burlington location because Dave Eisen, the owner, had started collecting food for us. So I went to go collect the food and bring a Burlington Helping Burlington t-shirt to him. I decided to stay and have a drink. And there was a gentleman behind me whose name is Dave Hallett, and he saw all of the sponsors on the back of the T-shirt and he said, ‘Can you explain what this is? It looks really neat.’”
“So I pulled up a chair and an hour later, he and I were just chatting about everything, and I mentioned that we were short by a little bit of money, $1500 to be exact, and what we wanted it for,” Neal continued. “And he just looked at me and said ‘I’m going to give it to you.’ I was like, ‘What?’”
“I met this person randomly, and it turns out he is very high up in a company called Ryerson Steel,” Neal said. “And his wife’s cousin is autistic. So when he knew what I was doing, he said, ‘Well, you just hit a bone to me.’”
When the fundraising start date rolled around, Neal surprised Bake-Murphy with a cheque for $5200 and brought Nikki Wesley from Cogeco’s YourTV with her, to broadcast the surprise on live TV.
Neal said that this past spring when meeting with Eisen again, he asked how he could get involved with Woodview as well. Neal then had the idea to surprise the organization once again at the unveiling of the sensory room.
The money for this cheque was raised by bringing local musicians in to perform at the three Black Swan locations that Eisen owns. And when Hallett learned that he couldn’t make it to the cheque presentation, he contributed another $500 to the cause, bringing the total to $2500.
To find out more about Woodview Mental Health and Autism Services, visit https://woodview.ca/.
Correction notice: an earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed some quotes to Jessica Gallino rather than Michelle Bake-Murphy and has now been corrected. Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.
