Another BBQ

We had our 6th Annual Second Wind Dreams "Where's the Beef?" BBQ yesterday at the Edmonton General.  Good thing we gave up at BBQ #1 trying to have them outside--yesterday was a rainy, windy, very cool day.  The temp dropped from a high of +15 around midnight, to +12 when I got up at 6:30, to +9 when I left for the EG at 9:30, and by the time I got home at 3, it was +6!! Brrr!!  It's +3 this morning by the way and some parts of Alberta to the north had a rain snow mix yesterday!! It's June, for pete's sake!!!

But back to the BBQ!  I have been working on this since February and as chair of SWD, most of the work fell to me to do. There were a number of times that I thought I'd have to cancel it--like when I discovered at the end of April that the date (June 2) that I thought had been reserved for us by Volunteer Services, for the auditorium, hadn't been after all.  Luckily June 3 was available, but then I didn't hear from our entertainment for a week or so after I told them of the date change.  So I thought I would be cancelling the whole thing. Have I mentioned that I hate organizing events?  I don't mind helping, but to have the whole responsibility for something's success or failure resting on my shoulders, is not something I relish. Teaching was different--it was all my own show, so to speak.  I didn't have to coordinate 6 other groups in order to put a course together and teach it!!!

Thursday afternoon, I waited for the balloon lady, Monique, to arrive and decorate the auditorium--she was 40 minutes late.  In the meantime I got the mugs and gift bags out of the store room and started putting the gift bags together with cards, and I moved our cart from Unit 4AB to the auditorium. While she filled balloons, I visited with my dad for awhile and then waited for her to finish up.  She still had to come in Friday morning with the balloon centre pieces for the tables though.  I got home at 7:30.

I already knew that because the BBQ was on a Friday we would be in conflict with the Friday Chapel Service, so we would end up starting a little later after the residents came from church, as well as the minister that I had asked to say Grace.  Turned out the computer system to play the CDs didn't work-- I wasn't surprised. I've seen everyone have trouble with that thing. So instead of playing Country/Western CDs while the entertainers ate, we had silence.  Well, not really as there was plenty of noise from all the people there!! There weren't enough staff/ volunteers to help take people back to their units or to the bathroom.  So I ended up portering some residents to 7Y, as well as getting some juice containers for the residents that wanted that, not tea, coffee, or pop.

But all in all I think everyone had a good timeand the BBQ went off well. We had residents from 2 units-4C and 7Y. We had 2 guest chefs--Averil Suriyakumaran, Director of Care and Rob Kinsman, Director of Facilities, at the EG. The Bluegrass group Crooked Creek performed great music. Teacher Janelle Benedet brought 21 students from her Grade 8 class from the Nellie McClung Girls' Junior High Scool program at Oliver School.  She had coached them well, and they paired off with the residents and really took their duties seriously The teacher asked me to give them a little talk too and I told them that if they had a question to look for one the people wearing the blue bandanas--the SWD committee--all 4 of us!! They did a fabulous job. We served hamburgers and hotdogs--the latter was the first time we did that and they were a big hit!! They were all gone, while there was still a pan of burgers left!!  I did all the intros and thank you's and we all handed out the gifts.  I was way too busy to take photos until towards the end of the BBQ--Doreen took care of the picture taking.  But I did get some pix as things were winding down.

Brigitte and her son--she sits at the same dining table as my dad and I like to make her laugh--she feels so much better!!

Crooked Creek

The students all started dancing towards the end--square dancing, line dancing, you name it!! It was great fun to watch them and the muscians said later they loved it that the girls were dancing! The students didn't want to go back to class after all this fun!!

Edith and Doreen.  Monique made 4 of those tall pillars of balloons for us.

Edith, Doreen, and yours truly! I didn't care that it was going to be a rainy, cool, day--I was still going to wear jean capris and sandals!!!