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A message from our Team Captain: I would like to thank all of you who unselfishly volunteered your free time on Saturday to participate in a race to raise awareness and lift the spirits of the local Orillia people employed by the Huronia Regional Centre. The government is threatening to close this amazing centre which provides all the needs a severely developmentally disabled patient could ever need!! Sandra took me on a tour of the grounds after the races and I must say I WOULD WANT TO LIVE THERE! It is a like a HUGE RESORT with its own private beach and picnic grounds! Winning the HRC Challenger Cup Race and having the dedication afterwards brought the locals closer together and lifted their spirits tremendously! Sandra’s emotional speech left everyone with teary eyes! It is thanks to Sandra and her mom’s continued efforts and dedication to this cause that we were able to put such a WINNING team together and have such a wonderful time on Saturday! From what I can see, everyone enjoyed themselves and we had a great team dynamic that worked so well together! Some of the parents & staff thanked us personally for doing this race on their behalf and I cannot tell you how proud that made us feel especially when none of us hesitated to do it for such a worthy cause! Thanks again everyone and we shall stay in touch for other races in the future! Some of us started off as strangers and became fast friends at the races! Amazing races considering we did not practice at all especially when we missed first place by only 3 seconds! Mary Won |
| The Dragon Boat HRC Challenger Race Cup Ceremony- to commend the staff at HRC for their dedicated, unconditional love and service excellence to our most vulnerable citizens The Festival Organizer, Keith Bell, walked out to the boat to initiate the ceremony. Sandra gave a speech dedicated to the City of Orillia, Soldiers Memorial Hospital and the volunteers and Staff at HRC. The HRC Forget Us Not Dragon Hearts - took their flowers and put them into the waters, to honor the Staff at HRC. The crowd applauded HRC for its excellence. Keith Bell took one of the flowers and gave it to his mother - who worked at HRC for over 32 years. |
| A special Thanks from Keith Bell to the HRC Forget Us not Dragon Heart Team. Thank-you. This was very special to me as well. The HRC was a very big part of our families lives growing up and still today. You touched many lives with this ceremony, Thank-you. Keith |
Dedication Speech To the STAFF of HRC Thank you Keith Bell and the Community Organization of Orillia and Area. This year’s Dragon Boat Festival event is an excellent demonstration of Orillia’s community of people joining together. The Dragon Boat Festival originated a very long time ago, from a man who was extremely distraught and frustrated over a very corrupt government, that he took his boat onto the waters and took his own life. The people in the community, feeling for his strife, frustration and sorrow, came together with their boats and drums to lift his spirit. This turned into an annual event and eventually became the festival it is today. The Dragon Boat festival is all about people in your community helping each other together. I cannot think of a more fitting event to acknowledge and validate the Excellence of Care to our most vulnerable citizens, our residents at Huronia Regional Centre (HRC). This ceremony is for the City of Orillia, Soldiers Memorial Hospital, all the volunteers and especially the staff , both past and current of Huronia Regional Centre . On behalf of the families and the residents, we want to commend you on your excellence as a community – you gave our most precious a home, a family, many friendships and a community of unconditional loving care. We want to pray for the staff and residents of HRC through this most difficult transition and lift your spirits. We want to ensure that all of us never forget all those that cared so dearly for our most vulnerable and fragile people. We hope and pray that the excellence and expertise here in Orillia, will never die, and though a plan that the families, friends and professionals put together, will be accepted, so that all communities in Ontario can benefit from this City’s expertise, knowledge and heart. On behalf of the families, friends and residents of Huronia Regional Centre, we introduce the HRC Challenger Cup Race – an annual event, to thank the HRC Staff for your unconditional love, compassion and excellence in the best care of our loved ones. The families of the residents at HRC, gathered friends to paddle in this race, to honour the City of Orillia and the Staff at HRC. Their team is the HRC Forget Us Not Dragon Hearts . The HRC Annual Challenge Race is for the staff of HRC and the City of Orillia, so that we will never forget and always be thankful for the gift of love and life you have given to our relatives over the many, many years. HRC –Forget Us Not- Dragon Hearts – congratulations on your winning of the HRC Challenger Cup Race. Please in memory of all those that have worked so hard and provided the dedicated care and excellence in services to our loved ones, throw your flowers onto the waters, and lift the spirits of the HRC Staff and the City of Orillia. On behalf of the families and the residents, Thank you |
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