Saturday 25 October 2008

Boy's Night Out

More accurately put Boy's Night In but it appeared to be full of as much debauchery as could be: loud music, swearing, false accusations, falling out of wheelchairs, high fives, and the oddest event of the night being the whole crew sitting around the poker table watching a little Sing With Me Elmo doll sing "Shout". Not proud of that, but there is a really good reason for it.

In the House tonight for boys teen night are rod, liam, kenny, randy, saul, and jeffrey.

I was early and half the crew were in the TV room doing the Rock Band video game. I love that game. I can't sing, or play the drums but I can't help myself...I love the sound of my bad voice and I know others like it too. A couple of hellos, a couple of songs, and then off to dinner.
Awesome pasta!
Back to the TV room and a couple more songs until Poker Time.

Poker is a very high class game and must be played in the high class room: the Great Room. One day I will have to run through the house with my camera and do a bit of a show and tell. It is a beautiful house. Yours truly got to deal for Texas Hold 'Em. I don't know anything about poker, but am know well versed in the Burn and Turn, the flop, the turn and the river.

One of the prizes that went into the pot during a game of 21 was a dancing Elmo doll who sings shout. With his squeaky little voice at the end of his dance Elmo proclaims "oh boy! You really want to make Elmo SHIT!" Every time Elmo spoke the word 'shout' it comes out 'shit'! It had to be the funniest thing to happen all night....other than the time Kenny was doing a wheel stand in his chair. I was dealing and I could see him rocking back in his chair....he was holding it and had a big Elmo Shouting grin on his face...and then he started to go backwards. It was all in slow motion and he still had the Elmo Shouting grin on his face as I leapt across the room only to end up standing over him and laughing my ass off. It was the funniest thing to watch! Good thing it was on the carpet because he smacked the floor pretty good.

After poker Liam kept egging me on to go sing while he does guitar. We got Saul on the drums.
I like that game. Need one in my classroom.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Celine Dion

I never thought I would ever say this but, thanks to unknown benefactors, 60 Canuck Place volunteers (including me) are going to the Celine Dion concert tonight. As I said to Sara our Volunteer intake worker "my street cred has been destroyed...
It should be a great show...I will drive all night.

Sunday 12 October 2008

Monopolised

Very quiet in the house tonight. Bobby and Denny are in for respite care. While we were doing our thing tonight one of the most important events that occurs at the house was taking place. An 11 day old baby and family were coming into the house for an end of life stay. This must be incredibly hard to do for a family but I can think of no other place where the short life of a child is so revered and the care given to all involved is so expert.

Bobby is a veritable senior citizen of the program and is in for his very last admission. Bobby turned 19 and has therefore graduated from the program. If I am not mistaken this is the third Grad I have known. I would have to think that it is both exciting and sad to graduate from the house. If you have to leave the house because you are too old is a fantastic event, but not being part of Canuck Place and getting their special care would be an absolute bummer.

Denny is a boy from Penticton. He has Duchennes muscular dystrophy. He is the monopoly in monopolise. After dinner we all (Denny, Bobby, Joan, and me) went up to the school room to continue a game of Monopoly. We played for a long time. Bobby was whisked away by a nurse...maybe for bed?
Denny made sure that he put Joan and I into the deepest and darkest realms of debt. Even when Joan tried to concede he said no and made her sell him every last piece of property she had mortgaged to the bank. Only then was the game over.

After a trip to the Kid's floor for a potty break we were upstairs for a game of Scrabble.
Yours truly kicked fanny.

Friday 3 October 2008

Gift of Time

This is a time to share your wealth: The Gift of Time
If you are feeling particularly flush and would like to seat a table of 7 of your close and personal wealthy friends $2800 will do that wonderfully. Bring your chequebook. An auction for many beautiful items will take place.
Entertainment for the last three years has been Chantal Kreviazuk, Jan Arden, and Amanda Marshall...who's next?

The Blog

My name is Malcolm and I was a volunteer at Canuck Place Children's Hospice in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for nearly seven years. Now I support them by raising money by participating in the Canuck Place Adventure Challenges!


I said hospice. Not really a word that you associate with children but there you go. We will tell you about the house as this blog progresses with the hope that you will learn, and as you learn we hope that you will share. The purpose of the Adventure Challenge is to raise money for AND awareness about Canuck Place.

The name of each kid at the house you read about has been changed.

September 14th and 15th are the dates for the next Adventure Challenges.

You can sponsor me for the race here: Adventure Challenge
Maybe you should do the race?

Names:

Just a quick note about the names of the kids in the house that you will read about: they are made up!