Despite the wind and rain in the early part of the day, the 8th Annual JuneFest event which was held on Wednesday June 16, 2010 at Mel Lastman Square in Toronto, Ontario was still a huge success.

Special thanks to all of our booth participants, who braved the weather and were there to provide information about deaf-blindness and other related services, as well as M&M Meat Shops who hosted our fantastic charity barbeque and Starbucks who had their fabulous beverage sampling station.

The day wouldn’t have been complete without music from Maximum Music Service and children’s entertainment from Malibu Bob. A very special thank you to all of our sponsors who helped make the event including our silent auction and ebay auction great successes.

Special thanks also to David Zimmer, MPP Willowdale for his ongoing support. In addition, congratulations to Joyce Thompson on receiving the JuneFest Award of Excellence. It was nice to see many of Joyce’s friends and family at the event to help celebrate her achievements.

Most of all thanks to all of the consumers, service providers, friends, families and the general public who came out to celebrate Deaf-Blind Awareness Month at JuneFest. We look forward to seeing you all again next year. Stay tuned for information on JuneFest 2011.
  

Please visit www.junefest.ca for for more information on JuneFest.

 
 
RCH Board Profile - Elio Riggillo
 

   Hello to everyone! My name is Elio Riggillo and I have Usher Syndrome, type one. I am a Board member for RCH/CHKC, and I am president of the Ontario Usher Syndrome Association.

I just wanted to tell you a true story about me. I was born deaf and did not know until I was 16 years that I had Usher Syndrome. When I was in high school with my friends, all of them got their driver’s licenses after their 16th birthdays. My friends and I were always competitive from the time we were young. We were the same when it came to us getting our driver’s license. I went and wrote my written test and passed.

Next was the test for vision. I passed it second time but only because my friend warned me that there were two lights on the left or right side. I tried to catch the lights the first time and was caught and failed. I was disappointed so I tried for a second time and passed. I was showing off my license when my teacher saw it and told me that I can’t drive! I asked why? They tried to explain it to me but I ignored them. I later asked my dad to help train me to drive. I didn’t know that my teacher had phoned my mother. My father always gave me an excuse why he couldn’t take me to practice driving. I later found out my parents didn’t know how to explain to me about my vision problem.

After I was told by eye doctors about my vision problem I started to realize and understand about my life and remembered how I missed everything, banged into things, couldn’t see well in the dark etc. It took a long time for me to accept I would be deaf-blind.

I try now to think positive and I don’t accept any barriers in my life. I had to accept many new things. People from the deaf-blind community and my wife always told me to use a white cane. I refused as I was not comfortable and was embarrassed. I finally agreed to use a cane after a good friend told me about their accident - they bumped into someone and they fell and broke their arm. My friend felt so guilty. It is always better to have safety first. I work two jobs, am married for 14 years and have 3 beautiful children. I am now enjoying my life as a deaf-blind person and all the challenges. I look at everything as an experience from which I can learn.
  
 
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The HOT Wire
Profiles
 
 

RCH Outreach Consumer
Craig Maclean
 
 
 
  

RCH Intervenor
Gordon Johnston
 

Canadian Helen Keller Centre