Lansdowne Children's Centre Autism Services and Family Support Network are teaming up this month to present a new activity event for Lansdowne clients.
The 'Halls of Halloween' is a pilot project developed by Autism Services at Lansdowne, designed to provide clients and their families an opportunity to become more comfortable with common Halloween experiences, like wearing a costume or travelling to different doors.
Susan Battin is a manager on the Autism Services team, and is helping to coordinate the inaugural event, to be held in the evening on Thursday October 27th.
"It's a sort of “Trick or Treat Practice” night here at Lansdowne Brantford. We've been dreaming about an event like this for many years - and this is the first year that we have been able to put it into motion. We are very excited."
The event concept is to provide a safe, comfortable and accessible experience in a controlled environment for children to experience routines associated with Halloween and trick or treating in the community. Clients and their families are encouraged to to practice:
Wearing a costume
Seeing others in costume
Asking for a treat
Taking just one treat
Accepting what they have received
Waiting in line
Walking from door to door
Staying close to caregiver
Parents looking over candy before its eaten
Participants may also be invited to join a glow in the dark dance party and/or a small craft table as part of the event.
Registration
As a first-year pilot program participation is limited. There are three available time slots for interested families to investigate. The time slots beginning at 5pm and 6pm are reserved for families of clients involved in Autism Services at Lansdowne Children's Centre.
The third time slot, beginning at 7pm, is available to any client families involved with any services at Lansdowne Children's Centre. We hope that a positive first-year experience will provide opportunity to grow the event to welcome more clients in the future.
Registration is available online on the Event Calendar, date October 27.
Volunteers and Contributions
As you are pulling out your Autumn and Halloween decorations please consider if there are any that you are willing to donate towards decorating Lansdowne Children's Centre. We are working to have the centre courtyard and halls decorated to help set the mood and allow children get used to the Halloween Spirit.
We are also open to volunteers (in costume?) to participate as greeters and door station operators. Regular security checks and masking will be required.
If you are interested in participating please email Renee Cochrane, Family Engagement Coordinator, at rcochrane@lansdownecc.com
We will also welcome donations to the event, and would appreciate:
Decorations
Old Costumes
Blow-up Characters
Packaged candy/treats
Apples
Toothbrushes
Pumpkins
The maximum attendance for this first-year event is 150 children/youth. We are excited to introduce this new opportunity for clients and families and hope we can continue to grow.