JuneFest

08/15/2019

Update: The JuneFest page will be discontinued in the next couple of weeks to help streamline our social media messages into one account. As a result, we welcome everyone to 'like' and 'follow' the Canadian Helen Keller Centre page. Thank you.

06/11/2019

CHKC employee Elio raises the flag to commemorate June as Deafblind Awareness Month at Toronto City Hall today. Another JuneFest has come and gone — thanks to everyone who made it out!

06/10/2019

Rain didn’t stop JuneFest!!! In spite of the wet and cold weather we held yet another successful event this year! Special thanks to mayor John Tory for stopping by and learning about CHKC and our partner organizations. He even expressed interest in visiting the Training Centre to learn even more! Thanks to everyone for making JuneFest 2019 such a fun and informative day!

06/05/2019

JuneFest at Nathan Phillips Square on Monday, June 10, 2019. DBAT/DBA volunteers will attend JuneFest between 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. DBAT/DBA will be hosting simulations for the public between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Simulations will be:
-Orientation and Mobility using a cane and simulation goggles
-Braille Simulation using simulation goggles
-Orientation and Mobility using a guide dog
Thank you to everyone who is volunteering and supporting the Canadian Helen Keller Centre and the deafblind community.

06/03/2019

Here are just some of the proclamations we have received from municipalities across the country in support of National Month. Thank you to City of Toronto - Municipal Government, City of Stratford - The Municipality, Town of Newmarket, Municipality of Port Hope, Ontario, Town of Milton, City of Kitchener, Town of Whitby, Discover Halifax and Town of Ajax. Your support of the deafblind community means the world to us!

06/03/2019

Tonight, landmarks across the country will be lit up blue in recognition of June being National . Here in Toronto members of the deafblind community will head over to CN Tower / La Tour CN at dusk for the unveiling. Come join us.

05/29/2019

To commemorate National Deafblind Awareness Month, members of the deafblind community and supporters will pause to reflect when they see many familiar landmarks in Canada lit up in blue on June 3. These landmarks include: Toronto City Hall, CN Tower, Niagara Peace Bridge, Niagara Falls, London Life Dufferin Building, London City Hall, North Vancouver City Hall, Winnipeg Forks Market Canopy, Calgary Tower, Calgary Telus Sparks Building, Penticton South Okanagan Convention Centre, Port Credit Lighthouse, P.E.I. City Hall, Halifax City Hall and the Toronto sign. Ceremonies are to take place at dusk, approximately at 8:54 p.m.

05/16/2019

Deaf-Blind Adventurers and DBAT would like to invite you to dinner and the CN Tower Lighting Ceremony supporting Deafblind Awareness Month with CHKC.

The CN Tower will be lit blue.

Date: Monday, June 3, 2019.
Time: Dinner is at 6:00 p.m. and the Lighting Ceremony is at 8:54 p.m.
Location: Boston Pizza, 250 Front St. W.

After dinner we'll walk over as a group to the bottom of the CN Tower.

05/14/2019

In 1954 Helen Keller explains that her greatest disappointment in life is that she can not speak like others. TRANSCRIPT: "In this room sits a remarkable woman. She's Miss Helen Keller. She does not see the room, or the book she's reading. She sees nothing . She doesn't hear the rustling of the curtains behind her. She is deaf... Deaf and blind. But if you enter a room she will know it. Your lightest foot fall will tell her you are coming. It will even tell her who you are, if she knows you. As she knows her old friend Polly Thomson. Polly has been with Helen forty years. For half of these she has been Helen's only companion. Helen's eyes and ears on the world. She talks to Helen with a finger system in which each letter has a sign...like this. Reaching out beyond her dark and silent night, Helen depends most on touch. Two other senses remain. There is taste and smell. Scent... the scent of objects and places and people tells Helen much that we learn with eyes and ears. But her hand is her chief link with the outer world, with Polly, with Anne the part time helper. With everyone she encounters. With her hand she reads Anne's lips. She answers with her voice. It is an unnatural voice, and is her great sorrow. For all her years of effort Helen has never learned to speak clearly. This isn't strange. For since she was a baby she hasn't heard a word spoken nor seen lips forming one. But let Helen, with Polly's help, tell you. (Helen speaking): "It is not blindness or deafness that bring me my darkest hours. It is the acute disappointment in not being able to speak normally. Longingly I feel how much more good I may have done, if I had only acquired normal speech. But out of this sorrowful experience I understand more clearly all human striving, thwarted ambitions, and infinite capacity of hope."

Year - 1954. Helen Keller explains That her Greatest Disappointment in life is that she can not speak normally. TRANSCRIPT: " In this room sits a remarkable ...

05/14/2019

Come out to Nathan Phillips Square on June 10 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for the 17th annual JuneFest. ParaSport Ontario will be on hand with some interactive activities. The event is free and everyone is welcome! See you there!

05/07/2019

Several students at St. Francis University recently developed tools for a local 8-year-old boy who is blind and deaf.

Several students at St. Francis University recently developed tools for a local 8-year-old boy who is mostly blind and deaf.

05/03/2019

An upcoming performance of The Miracle Worker at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse will have American Sign Language interpreters to make it more accessible.

The May 11 performance of The Miracle Worker at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse will feature American sign language interpreters. It's a first for Drayton Entertainment.