Every year International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) is held on 3 December and The Disability Trust celebrated this year by holding several activities across our regions.
In Wollongong we held a sensory walk where participants from the Trusted Garden Program worked really hard to prepare for the event, and our new garden looked fantastic. On the day, there was rock painting, musical instruments, a virtual reality experience, cycling, Christmas ornaments to create, bubbles and scented oils, and participants even planted their own seedlings.
In Sydney, SLES participants from across the region came together for a celebratory morning tea to celebrate the day. Meanwhile the Art Group & Fitness Group enjoyed activities on the day too, with plenty of smiles all round. Some of the art class also featured in an art exhibition held by local council to celebrate the day.
At the Goulburn office, the celebrations began with face painting and a morning tea, followed by Sensory Games and pizza for lunch, before finishing the day with dancing in the Club Trust Disco.
The Hunter Valley region celebrated IDPwD with friends and community. There were parties, baking, sharing and some residents even delivered gifts for their new neighbours to celebrate moving in to their new home.
Further south, there were awards night for both the Bega Valley and the Snowy Monaro regions, with everyone delighted to be able to come together and celebrate the end to an amazing year on International Day of People with Disability.
There was an Awards night in ACT and Queanbeyan too, when teams gathered at the Hellenic club to celebrate IDPwD. More than 150 participants, families and staff attended the awards ceremony, where each participant received a medal and a certificate outlining their achievements for 2021. The Annual perpetual awards were also presented, before they finished the night with some food, drinks and a much enjoyed dance off.
The theme for IDPwD 2021 is ‘Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world’. With this in mind, Mischief Makers Drama participant Alex Dawson interviewed Destination Wollongong CEO Mark Sleigh about what inclusion means to him, while disability self-advocate Andrew Radford interviewed Multiple Sclerosis Limited CEO John Blewonski about inclusion and some exciting changes to increase accessibility for the 2022 MS Gong ride, an annual cycling fundraiser that is returning to the roads after lockdowns and travel restrictions forced the event to be run ‘virtually’ for the last two years.
