As we welcome 2016 we wish to thank all who have supported us this past year. We finished 2015 with a great Christmas party for our members and friends. Thank you to Bev Warner, our ever-faithful chief cook, to Pat Fleck from Morris Flowers, who made and donated the beautiful table centerpieces, and the Cresteramics board of directors who hosted the party. It was a great start to the holidays. Thank you to all of you who purchased Christmas gifts at our Cresteramics store and to Donna, our executive director, who worked on her holidays to keep the store open right up until Christmas. December was one of our best months. The income from the store is shared by the artisans and Cresteramics, which helps us offer programs for our members.
Our agency is working towards accreditation as a service provider, and for those of you have gone through this process, you know that it requires attention to every detail of operation. It is a long, tedious and necessary task, and agencies must meet strict standards. Our mock survey was Jan. 19 and the results were positive. Work will continue on this project as we prepare for the final survey in June.
The Advance gives us this opportunity to share what is happening in our community and I will take this chance to tell you about one of our members and her involvement with Special Olympics. Kathy Schmidt is 51 years old and has been attending Cresteramics for too long for her to remember. She started school at the Endicott Centre and moved to the day program at Cresteramics to help make the ceramic products sold to help support the program. She learned to paint gnomes, which have always been popular items to sell. Kathy continues to help with ceramic production but is very busy in the community, as well.
The list of activities Kathy is involved in is long, and it exhausts me just hearing about what she does each day. She is involved in many activities at the community complex, including skating, swimming and gym workouts. It is not all fun, though; Kathy works in the Maid in Creston program, works with her friend Jim in the courier program, does cleaning at the store and still finds time for yoga and exercise classes and art projects.
These are her daytime activities. In the evenings, she bowls, plays bocce and T-ball and participates in rhythmic gymnastics. Kathy is a member of the Creston Special Olympics floor hockey team that has earned the right to go to the Special Olympics Canada (SOC) National Winter Games in Cornerbrook, N.L., in February. Creston is sending two coaches and four athletes from the floor hockey team to this competition. Richard Chlopecki is the local co-ordinator and coach, and can be reached at 250-402-0075. Support for this trip is always appreciated. Good luck to Kathy and her team members as they represent Creston in this national competition.
Thank you to Creston for our program partners and your support of our store and our members in their activities in the community!
Terry Nowak is a board member of the Cresteramics Society.