September 2015 - Cosmopolitan Industries

Volume 35 Issue 9
www.cosmoindustries.com
Did you know?
Your donated greeting cards provide meaningful work for
Cosmopolitan Industries Seniors.
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The donations are recycled
and used to create new greeting cards, hang tags and used
in art projects, scrapbooks
and art journals
Helped us fill orders for over
2500 Christmas cards in 2014
Helped us make Christmas
cards for approximately 400
Cosmo Participants
Helped us create Birthday Cards for about 400 Cosmo Participants
Are used to make hangtags which accompany blankets presented to
those grieving, sick, in the hospital or for celebrating the arrival of a
new child!
Recycled Cosmo Cards
For sale year around in our Seniors Division
Cost: $0.50 per card ($0.25 for participants)
Assorted (variety) pack: 10 cards for $3.00
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS!
** Donations of used greeting cards are gratefully accepted year around **
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
On Friday August 28th, we were able
to spend a fun evening out with a great
group of gentlemen. Kathy and I had
the opportunity to be accompanied by
Arthur Kolbu, Velmore Smith, Larry
Scammel & Bill Dyck to dinner and a
play! We started our evening out with a
buffet supper at Smiley’s which was a
favourite of all. Following that, we had
a nice drive out to the Barn Playhouse
to enjoy a great performance. The play
was entitled ‘Cheaper By The Dozen’
with a story line about a father that
wanted to ensure his large family was
running as efficiently as his factory.
However, his children had a few antics
of their own which provided some humour. We all enjoyed our evening out
together and would like to thank Top of
the Rock for helping make this happen.
Bev Brassard
Seniors Division Assistant Manager
September 2015
NEW STAFF
Barry Teichroeb—Facilities Manager
Dynel Weber—Community and Enriched Support, Program Division
Sheena Ritzand—Community and Enriched Support, Program Division
Breanne Grzybowski—Community
and Enriched Support, Program Division
Ashley Gursky—Community Work
Groups, Contracts Division
CHANGES
Mary Ma—term, Pathways Division
Chantelle Weyland—term, Community
and Enriched Support, Program Division
Eldon Genest—Community Work
Group, Contracts Division
Bhett Mujer—Van Driver/Pathways to
Opportunity Division
Ashley Fehr—Van Driver/Community
and Enriched Support, Program Division
WELCOME BACK
Blaine Dobson
LEAVING
Arnold Enriques
Maggie Badeck
Caitlin Grant
Chantal Gosselin
Calendar of Events
Monday, October 12th
Cosmo closed for
Thanksgiving Day
Monday, October 26th
Professional Development
Day -No ParticipantsFriday, October 30th
Halloween Dance &
Galon Haunted House
in the gym for participants
Page 32
The Cosmo Communicator
Artist’s Corner
This month, we will be featuring two of
Cosmo’s artists. They are Helen Block and
Allen Birns.
Helen Block is a multi-talented individual
who enjoys making a variety of art and
craft projects in the Day Program. Helen
likes to knit scarves, make hook rugs, and
make crafts. Her most recent projects include a scarf, a fish hook rug, a jellyfish
and a sea in a jar. Helen is particularly enthusiastic about these projects and is
proud to show them to anyone she encounters. She is known to tell people “look
what I did”. Helen is also very generous
and often gives away her knitting.
Debbie Popovici
Elmwood Day Program
Allen is an active member of LSTD Art
Group with impeccable attendance. He is
a wonderful and very friendly person. He
communicates with facial expressions, eye
contact, and beautiful smiles. He is always
eager to create some art work. Allen is a
role model of someone who shows excitement and enthusiasm. He is a role model
to all of us; an example of someone who is
determined to achieve what he likes in
order to follow his dreams. Having Cerebral Palsy couldn’t take away all these
remarkable qualities that make him a
beautiful human being and he teaches us
how to overcome difficulties in every aspect of our lives.
In the art group, staff will facilitate Allen
with the techniques to work on his art. He
will begin holding his canvas on the top of
his head and his paint brush in his dominant hand to put color on the canvas.
Sometimes he paints his nose, ear, or
neck; he does wear protective eyewear.
Allen will never give up or lose his smile.
Thank you Allen for your great participation, paintings and your colourful brush
strokes of happiness that you put in my
life.
Rosario Tenorio-Ruiz
Life Skills Training Division
IT’S A BOY!
The Featured
Artists of the
Month are
Helen Block &
Allen Birns
Proud parents Deidre (Life Skills
Training Division staff) and Derek are
happy to announce the newest
member of their family, Trey!
He was born on Thursday, August 6th,
2015, weighing 5 pounds 12 oz.
Congratulations!
IT’S A GIRL!
Shaina (Seniors Division staff) and
Shea Manning would like to announce
the birth of their little baby girl,
Ally June Manning!
She was born on August 28th 2015 at
9:35 am., weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces
and 19.8 inches long!
Both baby and mom are doing
wonderfully!
Congratulations Manning family!
COSMO RECYCLING PROGRAM AT 99.5% EFFICIENCY
Great News! 99.5% of recyclable materials that come to Cosmo make it to market.
That’s right. Cosmo’s new Material Recycling Facility (MRF) is incredibly efficient. An
independent audit found that 99.5% of all recoverable tin, glass, paper, plastic, aluminum and other recyclable materials collected in the Multi-Unit Residential Recycling program are sent to market. Less than 1% of recyclable materials are unrecovered and are sent to the landfill. When you put recyclable materials in a Cosmo bin
or cart, you can feel certain that the material is indeed being recycled.
Put Waste in the Right Place
The recycling program is for a specific set of consumer materials, most of which are
paper or some form of packaging. Unfortunately, current numbers show that 20% of
all the material dropped in Cosmo MURR recycling bins is garbage. Luggage, diapers,
construction materials, and many more items are not accepted in our blue recycling
containers. Items such as tires and batteries are also not accepted although they can
be recycled through other programs and places in the city. Find out where to recycle
these items and more at SaskWasteReduction.ca.
Please make sure to put waste in the
right place. Some garbage is a
health hazard to staff on the sorting
line. It is also very expensive for Cosmopolitan Industries to collect, separate and dispose of garbage. It costs
Cosmo $15,000 per month to deal
with all forms of contamination.
Every dollar spent on dealing with
garbage is unfortunately a dollar
that can’t be spent on Cosmo programs. We are working hard to
change this!
Page 3
The Cosmo Communicator
BABY FINCHES AT COSMO
A large cage of finches
was donated To the Life
Skills Training Division of
Cosmo. Tracey Pederson,
the area manager, soon
discovered there were
more finches in that cage
than the donor originally thought; which
was not surprising since these little birds
move about very quickly and are difficult
to count! Tracey, being the conscientious
person she is, did some research and discovered that while most finch species happily coexist , others do not. It was immediately noticed that nine of the plain brown
finches were being pecked by the flashier
red beaked bunch. Thanks to Trisha, the
Manager of Pathways To Opportunity Division, these little misfits were separated
and brought into Pathways. What a sorry
sight they were! Some were pecked quite
bald, especially one little bird who stood
out being the only golden coloured finch.
She was dubbed Ug (ugly duckling) by LSTD
staff and later Turkey Neck by Pathways
staff. Her entire neck, part of her back and
chest were devoid of feathers. Pathways
staff member, Debbie Chodak took these
nine little creatures under her wing and
they soon began to thrive and re-grow
their feathers! We decided Ug or Turkey
Neck, as she was called should start her
new life in a positive light so she was renamed “Blondie.” Another little fellow
sports a wacky head of feathers and Debbie named him “Ringo” as in Ringo Starr!
They are now loved and cherished by bird
loving Pathways participants and staff! I
did some reading and found out the red
billed variety are Zebra Finches and the
plain brown kind are Society Finches. Obviously these two species do not see eye to
eye but now everyone is doing well, happily ensconced in their own division. Their
chirpy, cheerful ways are a hit with the
participants and life is good!
FOLK FEST IN LIFE SKILLS
Life Skills Training Division had a festive
occasion on August 27th; everyone had
the opportunity to celebrate and learn
about various nations. All eleven nations
were represented through each LSTD
group choosing a nation and presenting
fun facts and colourful group displays.
As well, nations were represented
through special ethnic dishes and cultural song and dance! Special thanks to
those who performed in the Ukrainian
dance performance (Dima, Val,
Vanessa), and Spanish song artist
(Roberto). This event was a wonderful
success, easily seen through the participants smiles, and overall attentiveness
to the activities provided!
Keith Fisher
Life Skills Training Division
Sheri Lowe
Pathways to Opportunity Division
UFC’S MITCH CLARKE COMES TO COSMO!
On Friday August 21, Cosmo welcomed UFC
fighter Mitch Clarke. Mitch toured Cosmo, signed
autographs and posed for pictures with participants. The participants were very excited to
meet Saskatchewan’s only UFC fighter. Mitch
was born and raised in Saskatoon, has 14 wins so
far in his UFC career and won UFC 173 Performance of the Night. Due to an injury, Mitch did
not partake in the UFC event in Saskatoon on
August 23 but everyone at Cosmo would like to
wish Mitch all the best in his future fighting
bouts with the UFC!
Dave Parkalub
Recreation Coordinator
SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDER VISITS COSMO
On Wednesday August 12th, Cosmo
welcomed Saskatchewan Roughrider
Jorgen Hus. Jorgen is the long snapper
for the Riders and had previous stints in
the National Football League (NFL).
Jorgen enjoyed his tour of Cosmo,
meeting participants, signing autographs
and taking pictures with participants and
staff. He mentioned that coming to
Cosmo has definitely been a highlight of
the month. Let’s hope that the highlights
can continue into the weekend games
and the Riders can break into the win
column!
GO RIDERS GO!
Recreation Coordinators
WANTED:
Small Corelle Bowls
Are you closing up your cabin for the
season? Or making extra room in your
kitchen cabinets?
Cosmo Seniors would gladly accept
donations of small Corelle bowls
(cereal or soup size)
Donations can be dropped off at
Seniors.
Thank you!
Page 43
The Cosmo Communicator
FIRST NATIONS DAY CELEBRATION
On Friday September 4th, Cosmo held
a First Nation / Métis Day. We had a
full day planned of First Nation/ Métis
entertainment that everyone came and
enjoyed!
In the morning we had a visit from
Scott Duffee. Scott is a Métis fiddle
player who entertained for about 45
minutes with his music skills. In between songs, Scott welcomed participants up to the front and taught jig
dancing. After Scott’s performance he
let everyone try their hand at playing
the fiddle. In the afternoon, we had
a Pow Wow dancer (Nathan) dressed in
traditional dress who did a fabulous job
of dancing to the very talented young
men from the Mount Royal Drum
COSMO’S SAFETY
MOMENT
As we all have safety concerns
regarding the work area, my
friend Delores has reminded me
of staying safe on the way to Cosmo. We
share our neighbourhood with many
other businesses and schools which generates an abundance of vehicle traffic in
our area. Delores has shared a few reminders to ensure that we arrive at
work safely;
 Look both ways before crossing the
street
 Stay on the sidewalk until there is
enough room to cross safely
 Cross at the corner of the street or
a designated cross walk
 Wear bright colours so drivers can
see you
 Make eye contact with the driver of
the car so you know that they have
seen you
 Walk across the street – don’t run
If we remember these steps and help
our friends to practise them as well, we
will all be safer every day.
Delores Brock
Participant from Seniors
Holy Best
Life Skills Training Division
Group. We also brought in a very special guest, Fred Sasakamoose. Fred is
the first Canadian Aboriginal player in
the National Hockey League and the
first First Nations player with treaty
status. Fred gave a very moving speech
on his life which was emotional for
many in the audience listening to him
for roughly ½ hour. After his speech,
Fred signed autographs and met with
everyone.
Hopefully everyone that came enjoyed a great day of First Nation / Métis
entertainment and learned a bit of First
Nation / Métis culture!
Dave Parkalub
Recreation Coordinator
NIGHT OUT AT THE HORSE RACES
Sheri and I took Kelly McRuvie, Calvin
Gessell and Cory Henderson out on the
town Friday August 28th. We enjoyed a
wonderful supper at Smiley’s Buffet
and a small treat at Tim Hortons before
the Horse Races. Everyone had an
amazing time and they all got to take
home a souvenir; Kelly got a t-shirt,
while Calvin and Cory both picked hats
and they haven’t taken them off since!
Overall, the outing was awesome; and
the weather was fantastic. Big thanks to
Top of The Rock!
Spencer Kukurudza
Pathways to Opportunity
LET’S GO RIDERS!
Saturday August 22nd,
Tony Watson and Paul
Cory were off to Regina
for their annual Top of
the Rock Roughriders game along with
Dirk Iron, Les Large, Dan Sare and Tim
Latimer in hopes of bringing a little luck
and changing the Roughriders fortunes
and putting them back in the win column. After fueling up on Boston Pizza’s
good eats, it was off to Mosaic to bring
the noise. The game was close and entertaining but in the end it was Knock
knock, who’s there? Owen..Owen
who?..Owen eight.
Regardless of the result we all had a
great time . Thank you Top of the Rock!
Paul Cory
Recycling Division
WELCOMING FIRST YEAR NURSING STUDENTS
Cosmo has partnered with the
Saskatchewan Collaborative Bachelor
of Science in Nursing (SCBScN) program
to host ten of their first year nursing
students to complete 45 servicelearning hours. The ten students will be
placed throughout the areas of Cosmo
to gain perspective and experience of
working with adults with intellectual
disabilities. Students can benefit from
their time spent at Cosmo by learning
with our participants and can create
memories to last a lifetime. Cosmo will
host the students on a weekly basis
starting this month until the beginning
of December. We would like to welcome all ten students and hope we can
provide them with a wealth of knowledge to apply in their field of study.
Chantal Gosselin
Volunteer Coordinator