Volume 33 Issue 11 November 2013 www.cosmoindustries.com

Over the past year, we have incorporated a few iPads into our day programs and the results have been very encouraging. We have found a vast array of free apps which engage our participants. If you

have decided to upgrade to the latest version of the iPad, please consider do-nating your earlier model to Cosmo.

GIVE AN IPAD A GOOD HOME

CELEBRATING AN

INCLUSIVE SASKATOON

Calendar of Events Dec. 24th—closed

early Dec. 25th—closed Dec. 26th—closed Dec. 27th– closed

Dec. 30th closed early Jan. 1st—closed

Look for our big blue banner when you are doing your holiday shopping in December. Our participants had such a good time being on-location at Market Mall during the ‘Penny For Your Thoughts’ campaign, that we arranged to set up a few afternoons a week to market our Kisik Paper Angel Glass Ornaments. The proceeds from the sales of these ornaments are put towards the expansion and renovations of our building. Many businesses give a holiday present to staff or valued customers and the Kisik Glass Ornament is perfect for this purpose. We are also looking for businesses and organiza-tions who would like to sell the ornaments at their locations on our behalf. Our Paper Angel Mascots were designed by the StarPhoenix and each one has a name and a story. It is our plan to feature each Paper Angel on an ornament in the coming years. In this way Kisik is the first of a collection. This is a particularly apt time of the year for the Paper Angel Ornaments. In addition to the obvious holiday celebra-tions, December 3rd is designated as the United Nations Interna-tional Day of Persons with Disabilities. We celebrate an inclusive and caring community where our participants receive the supports that they require while also making a contribution to the community through their efforts and dedication. Look for the special feature on our International Day in the Star-Phoenix and a representative of Cosmo will be on Global Saskatoon’s Morning News at 6:45am on December 2nd. Most of all, if you see our big blue banner in a mall, please take a moment to stop and chat. One of the best parts of the experience that our participants have had in the four months that they were on location at Market Mall was all the interactions that they had with their neighbours.

The Cosmo Communicator Page 3 2

BHP Billiton staff members volun-teered to help with pumpkin carving and cookie decorating in our Con-tracts Division earlier in October.

A total of 19 staff members from BHP had the opportunity to join us for a tour of the building, fol-lowed by an activity on ei-ther Thursday or Friday after-noon. On Thursday afternoon, vol-

unteers along with participants were dispersed into groups and handed one pumpkin per table. Everyone helped with scooping the gooey in-sides out of the pumpkin. A spooky face was then drawn on the pumpkin and carved afterwards. The group on Friday was seated at different tables and were distributed a few cookies. Everyone decorated a

cookie or two of their own with pur-ple and/or orange icing. Once they finished decorating the cookies, the cookies were ready to be snacked on! To end both after-noons, BHP vo lunteers were placed throughout the groups u p s t a i r s where they were able to experience what a typical work day in the Con-tracts Division was like. Some helped with the beer labeling, some helped with flower pots, and some, ironically helped with sorting Potash. It was nice for the participants up-stairs to take a break from the hard work they do and participate in fun seasonal activities! A big thank you to the BHP Billiton staff members for coming to spend an afternoon with us! Chantal Gosselin Coordinator of Volunteer Services

BHP BILLITON VISITS COSMO

BHP staff member

carving faces with

participants

NEW VOLUNTEERS:

Rizalita Manlolo

Shayna Uhryn

Special thank you to the

following volunteers for

choosing Cosmo as their

work placement:

Latisha Martens

Rashel Brochu

Terrill Cowan

Gerry Teigrob

Well what an amaz-

ing year it was at

Cosmo. But hey, we

all had fun right? Well! I was thinking

that we should wait until the snow is

gone. Ok, I have got to tell you how it

went. Well now, what a year. It looks

like it flew by fast; let me tell you a

little tale of how the year 2013 went.

Ok, well anyways it began like this:

right after Tannis, Lynn and Lori left I

was a little concerned about who

would take their place. Little did I

know that Kim Hall was to be the new

supervisor? And hey, the Roughriders

won and the best part is they get to

play for the Grey Cup! So now, I am

just about to tell ya’ll that Justin Drew

Bieber is in J-A-I-L A-G-A-I-N. This

time in Brazil, yup! You know what

that means yes?! If you said he’s a jail

bird for one year than you are abso-

lutely right. Well I must say that he is

a goner, yup! But hey there is more

where that came from. Oh I almost

forgot to mention I and crew had fun

on Halloween because we had a pan-

cake breakfast in the morning and

also I have to say that I have to tell

ya’ll about the poppy. The red sym-

bolizes love, joy and peace. It means

that people remember the sadness

and trust we have in knowing that the

Lord is right there with us and He’s

keeping watch over us. Well we still

got Christmas to do. And so I have just

two words to say Merry Christmas

and Happy New Year. But anyway, I

should go because you will be reading

this I hope. From CNN news, I am

Brian Stones.

SKIPPING STONES by Brian Stones

Upcoming

TeleMiracle 38

fundraiser

Christmas Basket sale

Ticket sales begin Mon. Dec. 2nd

Draw date: Fri. Dec. 20th

$1 each or 10 for $5

The Cosmo Communicator Page 3

Wow

!

NOTICE TO PARENTS &

CAREGIVERS

Our annual Christmas Party for

participants only will be on Friday

December 6th.

Combo/Wheelchair Bus passengers will

be picked up 1.5 hours later than usual

and drop off time will be 30 minutes

later than usual.

Buses will pick up passengers 2.5 hours

later than usual, no change in drop off

time.

City bus travelers plan to arrive at

Cosmo for 11:30 am.

Private travelers plan to arrive at Cosmo

for 11:30 am.

*Please be sure to dress up!

If you have any questions, please call

Helen at 664-3158.

Dear parents & caregivers:

As the holiday season gets near, we would like to ask parents and

care givers to notify Cosmo about any time off our participants are planning, so we may plan our transportation accord-

ingly.

Thank you & Happy Holidays!

Helen

New staff

Tracey Janzen- Contracts Division

Angelina Kunze- term Contracts

Rita Enriques- casual

Leaving Lorena Singh

Kailee Unger

Mary Pauls

Maricris Pagulayan

New Participants

Rhonda Simon

Barrett McBeath

John Chaise

Goodbye Amanda Littlecrow

Rick Knowles

January 10, 1979 - October 28, 2013

TRANSPORTATION FOR

EXTREME WEATHER

With the cold weather fast approach-ing, this is a reminder about transpor-tation for extreme weather. When the actual temperature reaches –30 C, or the windchill factor reaches –48 C, all wheelchair runs will be cancelled. This includes Cosmo wheelchair vans and First Student will not operate the lift on its wheelchair and Combo buses. First Student will operate their am-bulatory buses during these tempera-tures. Cosmo will continue to remain open and participants may choose not to attend if they feel the weather is too cold. Denise Young Program Director

Last month’s trade show raised

$205

Proceeds collected will be put

towards Cosmo’s renewal project.

Thank you to the vendors and

those who supported the event!

Cosmo raised

$114 for the Alzheimer’s Society

Congratulations to Tamara McGirr

for winning the Tim Horton’s basket!

Thank you to all who supported by

purchasing raffle tickets!

It is with deep sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Rick Knowles who left us on Monday, October 28, 2013. Rick leaves to mourn his parents, Tom and Debbie, his sister, Sandy as well as his numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. He was predeceased by his paternal grandparents, Jesse and Doro-thy Knowles, his maternal grandpar-ents, Cliff and Lorraine Hessdorfer and his maternal great-grandparents, Tom and Elizabeth Carriere. He also leaves to mourn his two best buddies, Ernie and Cujo (his dogs), who were always by his side. Rick was born on January 10, 1979 in Saskatoon. Rick attended school at St. Mark's, Hugh Cairns and Marion M. Gra-ham where he graduated in June of 2000. After his graduation, Rick began working at Cosmopolitan Industries until his sudden passing. Rick was ac-tively involved in the Special Olympics 5 pin bowling and the Monday night walking program. He enjoyed babysit-ting his Dad, watching Days of our Lives with his Mom and lovingly teasing his sister. He loved watching CMT, Three's Company and The Jefferson's as well as many other TV shows. Rick was such a routine guy, who looked forward to his Saturday burger and fries following bowling, his Sunday breakfasts enjoyed with his family, which was always topped off with his favorite slurpee, "Beer" (root beer). He liked to tease others. At Cosmo, Rick liked ripping books, cleaning pots and attending dances. Rick will be missed by anyone who knew him.

Annual Craft &

Bake Sale

Thursday, Dec 12th

10 am—3 pm

In Pathways

Art auction

Card sale

We will be accepting baking dona-tions and gently used Christmas

decorations to be part of our sale. Baking donations can be dropped off

at Cosmo in the morning.

The Cosmo Communicator Page 3 4

Our many thanks to Great Western Brewing Co. Ltd for providing a delicious pizza lunch to

Contracts & Community Work Groups!

The lunch on Wed., Nov. 13th marked

the completion of Great Western’s recent

labeling job. Thank you to all the partici-

pants, staff and volunteers who helped in

making this a success!

Before submitting our final numbers, a generous donor increased our donation to:

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s donation

to the United Way a success!

For sports enthusiasts, the Blades team has provided a competitive brand of hockey for Saskatoon resi-dents. The Blades have been a part of Saskatoon's hockey history since 1964, and there have been plenty of moments to jump and cheer for. To further explain the team’s history, the Canadian Hockey League Com-missilon awarded the team’s hockey fans with the exciting Memorial Cup tournament, which involves champi-ons from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Ontario Junior Hockey League, the Western Junior Hockey League, and the host. Most notably the Blades hosted the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon in 1989 where they had beaten the Swift Current Broncos

team that was riding a 14 game playoff unbeaten streak coming into that game in the tournament’s round robin. The pain of being a hockey fan is to come so close but yet so far. The

Blades eventually did loose to the Broncos that year in the Memorial Cup final. On a similar script, the Blades hosted the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon in 2012-2013, and were the only team to hand the powerful

Halifax Moosehead a loss in the tour-nament. The Moosehead only lost seven times in regulation during the entire course of the 2012-2013 regular season, and playoffs in Canadian Jun-ior Hockey. Cosmo’s participants are some of the Blades’ biggest fans out there and are fortunate to attend games with either staff members or family and friends.

Although it can often seem other-wise, when you see couches and tele-visions dumped in a recycling depot, when it comes to the actual recyclable material placed in the bins for recy-cling, Saskatoon is an island of cleanli-ness in an ocean of garbage. Charities across North America are dealing with ‘donations’ that are not suitable for recycling. The rule of thumb is that the more anonymous the act of recy-cling is, the more likely it becomes that contaminated materials will be placed in the community bins. In Saskatoon, our Paper Angels have been vigilant in keeping the recycling stream clean. We are proud that we traditionally have less than 2% con-

tamination in our donated paper. Oc-casionally, we find an unusual item, and there are too many TVs left at depots that should be taken to SAR-CAN and recycled through the SWEEP program, but we can confidently say that pretty well any municipality

across North America would love to have the low contamination that we enjoy due to the caring residents of our city.

2% AND THE OCCASIONAL DEER HIDE

TEAMS DATES

Regina @ Saskatoon Saturday, Dec. 7th

Edmonton @ Saskatoon Tuesday, Dec. 10th

Regina @ Saskatoon Friday, Dec. 13th

Kamloops @ Saskatoon Saturday, Dec. 14th

Kelowna @ Saskatoon Tuesday, Dec. 17th

Prince Albert @ Saskatoon Saturday, Dec. 28th

UPCOMING BLADES HOME GAMES

LET’S TALK HOCKEY: SASKATOON BLADES

$4,970.08