JC was pleased to accept the invitation Lawrence Grant, Executive Director of The Glebe Centre, extended on behalf of the organization’s Board of Directors, to give a dramatic reading of the play on November 28.
JC confirmed to the Board how the Glebe Centre partnered on “What My Grandma Means to Say” from when it was first being test-read in 2009, through the development of a Discussion Guide for teachers, the premiere of the play at the Ottawa International Writers Festival in 2009 and the publication of the storybook adaptation in the spring of 2011. She expressed her particular gratitude to Jen Dare, Pat Goyeche and Karen Joynt for their support throughout the evolution of the project. Most recently Abbotsford hosted a tea for healthcare professionals and for educators to demonstrate how the book and the play can enable families and children discuss Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia and can help them develop strategies to support someone they know who is living with such diseases.
Members of the Board were touched by the play and posed a number of questions after the presentation. One Board member asked whether JC had thought of writing about what happens as Alzheimer’s disease progresses, with a focus on the end of life. JC had not considered that but would.
She advised the board that junior students at her recent reading at Hopewell Avenue Public School had encouraged her to write about other diseases. When JC asked which ones they thought she should target, here were some of their suggestions: diabetes, cancer and ALS. The fact that these children between the ages of 8 and 12 already have such illnesses on their radar screens proved to JC how important it is for families to include children in conversations when such situations affect the life of a family.
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The Board of The Glebe Centre Welcomed JC’s Reading of “What My Grandma Means to Say”
JC was pleased to accept the invitation Lawrence Grant, Executive Director of The Glebe Centre, extended on behalf of the organization’s Board of Directors, to give a dramatic reading of the play on November 28.
JC confirmed to the Board how the Glebe Centre partnered on “What My Grandma Means to Say” from when it was first being test-read in 2009, through the development of a Discussion Guide for teachers, the premiere of the play at the Ottawa International Writers Festival in 2009 and the publication of the storybook adaptation in the spring of 2011. She expressed her particular gratitude to Jen Dare, Pat Goyeche and Karen Joynt for their support throughout the evolution of the project. Most recently Abbotsford hosted a tea for healthcare professionals and for educators to demonstrate how the book and the play can enable families and children discuss Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia and can help them develop strategies to support someone they know who is living with such diseases.
Members of the Board were touched by the play and posed a number of questions after the presentation. One Board member asked whether JC had thought of writing about what happens as Alzheimer’s disease progresses, with a focus on the end of life. JC had not considered that but would.
She advised the board that junior students at her recent reading at Hopewell Avenue Public School had encouraged her to write about other diseases. When JC asked which ones they thought she should target, here were some of their suggestions: diabetes, cancer and ALS. The fact that these children between the ages of 8 and 12 already have such illnesses on their radar screens proved to JC how important it is for families to include children in conversations when such situations affect the life of a family.
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