Elves Special Needs Society

Save the Date for Elves 50th Anniversary Celebrations!

Please note that there will be electrical work being completed at the Elves Child Development Centre. This will temporarily impact email and internet access to staff at both the Elves Child Development Centre and the Elves Adult Program for Thursday July 11, 2024. If you need to reach Elves please call the Elves Adult and Youth Centre at 780 481-5335 or the Elves Child Development Centre at 780 454-5310.

Thank you to the owners and staff of Nitza's Pizza in Sherwood for their donation of individual pizza's and salads for School Program staff year end celebrations. Elves School and Adult Program staff thoroughly enjoyed the delicious meal that was also customized for vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dietary concerns.

Free Events in the Edmonton Area

National Indigenous Peoples Day 2024
Organizer: City of Edmonton
Date: Thursday June 20
Location: Sir Winston Churchill Square
Time: 11:30am-2pm
Cost: Free
Join us for a time of celebration and commemoration, featuring musical performances, engaging activities, knowledge sharing and much more.

Creating Hope Society Commemoration
Organizer: Creating Hope Society
Date: Wednesday June 19
Location: YMCA Castledowns (11510 153 Avenue NW)
Time: 3-7pm
Join the Creating Hope Society and community partners for a day of fun and cultural activities to commemorate National Indigenous Peoples Day.
This is a free event, all are welcome to attend. For more information, call 587-590-4247 or email [email protected].

Indigenous Peoples Festival
Date: Friday June 21
Location: Borden Park, 7507 Borden Park Rd NW
Time: Noon-8pm
The Canadian Native Friendship Centre, in partnership with the City of Edmonton, is hosting Edmonton’s Indigenous Peoples Festival featuring live performances, Indigenous storytelling, an artisan market, games, food trucks and more!
An Indigenous Peoples Day Market
Date: Friday June 21 - Sunday June 23
Location: Grow Centre and Teaching Space (Basement), 10516 82 Avenue NW
Time: Noon-5pm
Grow Centre Coworking and Teaching Space will be hosting a market over the National Indigenous Peoples Day weekend. Celebrate community and discover works from local Indigenous artisans.
There will be over 15 local Indigenous vendors featured and a live book reading by Dr. Darlene Auger, a holistic practitioner, performance artist and author. For more information, visit Grow Centre’s Facebook Event.
National Indigenous Peoples Day at TWOSE
Date: June 21, 2024
Time: 8 am to 2 pm, various drop-in programming times
Location: Telus World of Science (11211 142 Street NW)
Description: The public is invited to attend a special event and various exhibits to celebrate and recognize the culture and worldviews of Indigenous Peoples who would traditionally steward the lands of amiskwaciy-wâskahikan, Beaver Hills House (Edmonton). The event includes a teepee raising, smudge ceremony, lighting of a traditional oil lamp that Artic people traditionally use, a vendors market, storytelling and more.
For more information about events and related documents please link into
City of Edmonton https://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_events/schedule_festivals_events/national-indigenous-peoples-day
Government of Alberta
https://www.alberta.ca/national-indigenous-history-month

We are grateful for the support of our sponsors, golfers and staff and volunteers for a successful golf tournament. We are estimating that we have net revenues of nearly $27,000. We look forward to seeing you again next year, where we will have early bird rates and special draw if you are able to refer a friend.

Thank you to Chris Meilleur and Josh McGregor for the recent amazing donation of tickets for Game Con Canada, the largest gaming expo in Canada. Tickets received by Elves are for Saturday, June 15, 2024. With over 300,000 square feet of gaming excitement, including video games, virtual reality, AR, board games, cosplay, celebrity appearances, e-sports, and more, Game Con Canada is now the largest gaming convention in Canada. This year, they will feature the world's largest game, tech and entertainment companies attending with bigger-than-life activations. Beyond the entertainment, we are proud to have the support of six post-secondary institutions from Alberta, showcasing the educational and career opportunities within the gaming industry.
Tickets received by Elves will be distributed to children, youth and clients and their families, who are interested in gaming and may be medically stable to be in an environment with flashing lights. If you are interested, please advise your teacher or instructor that you wish to have a set of tickets sent home. Requests will be supported on a first come first serve basis.

Thank you to sponsors of the Elves 2024 Golf Tournament held at the Ranch Golf and Country Club.

We are looking forward to seeing all golfers and volunteers at our 2024 Golf Tournament at Jagare Ridge Golf Course this afternoon.
If you are wanting to help Elves but can not attend the event, you can also support us by purchasing an 50/50 ticket. The draw will be taking place tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. The link to draw is https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/elvesgolf
Currently, there is $1,505 raised and the winner will receive 50% of all final proceeds.

The phones for the Elves Child Development Centre are currently out of order due to a systems related issue. If you have an urgent matter that you need to connect with an Elves team member, please call Stephanie at (780)920 8791. We will provide an update when the phone system has been restored.

🚨 Important Notice: Phone Line Issues 🚨

Dear Parents and guardians

Please be advised that the CDC is currently experiencing technical issues with our phone lines. If you urgently need to get in touch with our staff, please contact AYC at 780-483-5335.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

Thank you,

Elves is excited to be hosting our 2024 Golf Tournament which will be taking place on Thursday, May 30, 2024.
If you are unable to attend and still wish to support Elves facility maintenance, you can purchase a 50/50 ticket.
50% of proceeds raised will go to the winner. The draw for this event will be held at 10:00 a.m. on May 31, 2024.
Once confirmed, the winners name will be posted to Facebook. The event is found at:

Elves 2024 Golf Tournament Join thousands of community organizations - big and small - who raise more funds for their worthy causes with Rafflebox.

May 20 - May may 26, 2024. Community Disability Service Professionals Appreciation Week!
Thank you to all Elves multidisciplinary staff who work diligently to support the children, youth and adults who attend our programs.

Today is the last day to purchase a ticket to win an #2 Evan Bouchard signed hockey puck. Cheer on your favorite team and support a great cause. https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/elvesoilers

Round 2 Game 6 - Cheer on your favorite team and help Elves.
https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/elvesoilers

Elves is very grateful to the Edmonton Oilers for a donation of a Evan Bouchard signed hockey puck for our 2024 Golf Tournament.
Take you chance to win a puck via Rafflebox:
https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/elvesoilers
Raffle will remain open until 11:59 pm, May 19, 2024. The draw will take place on Monday May 20, 2024 at 10:00 am.

ElvesOilers Join thousands of community organizations - big and small - who raise more funds for their worthy causes with Rafflebox.

Happy Mother's Day to all caregivers.

Elves is very grateful to the Edmonton Oilers for a donation of a Evan Bouchard signed hockey puck for our 2024 Golf Tournament.
Take you chance to win a puck via Rafflebox:
https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/elvesoilers
Raffle will remain open until 11:59 pm, May 19, 2024. The draw will take place on Monday May 20, 2024 at 10:00 am.

ElvesOilers Join thousands of community organizations - big and small - who raise more funds for their worthy causes with Rafflebox.

We are very appreciative to the Elves nursing team for your support of the Elves children, youth and adults.

*UPDATE Alberta Education: The National Public Alerting System will send the test alert at 11:55 a.m. on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

Dear colleagues:
As you are aware, Albertans can receive messages about life-threatening emergencies, such as tornadoes, wildfires, floods, or Amber Alerts, directly to their cell phones. This wireless public alerting is a national initiative that works with the Alberta Emergency Alert system to send potentially life-saving emergency instructions to all connected/compatible cell phones in the threatened community.
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, at 11:55 a.m., the National Public Alerting System will send a test alert across Alberta to all broadcast platforms. During the test, an alert will go off followed by a text message letting cell phone users know the sound is part of a test and there is no need for concern.
As these test alerts can serve as an important teaching moment with Alberta’s youth, I encourage you to review the attached activity guide and consider ways this information can be incorporated into the classroom. This initiative helps empower students to have a conversation with members of their household about how ready they would be if the alert were real, and what steps they can take towards becoming more prepared.
Schools can also use this opportunity to schedule a practice drill that coincides with the alert and to send students home with preparedness information that will generate discussions with their households. Alberta’s government has created the Be Prepared program to support this work. Watch this 1-minute video and visit alberta.ca/CommunityPrep for resources to help.

For more information how to be prepared, please join our session this evening.
Wednesday, 8 May · 6:00 – 7:00pm
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/iuf-mcoe-aen
Or dial: ‪(CA) +1 289-315-8339‬ PIN: ‪936 088 423‬ #

We thank the great bus drivers who support the students to safely come to Elves and get home.

The Elves Parent Advisory Council invites families, staff and friends of Elves to join a virtual Emergency Planning information session from 6:00 - 7:00 pm on Wednesday May 08, 2024. Please see the link below to join. We hope to see you there!
Elves Parent Advisory Council - Emergency Preparedness Workshop
Wednesday, 8 May · 6:00 – 7:00pm
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/iuf-mcoe-aen
Or dial: ‪(CA) +1 289-315-8339‬ PIN: ‪936 088 423‬ #
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/iuf-mcoe-aen?pin=7452182824080

We appreciate our administrative team and the great ways that they support the whole Elves community!

Todays, Family Oriented Program discussing Autism-related Services and Supports will be cancelled for today due to the speaker availability. Elves will send out packages to interested parties who contact their Elves social worker. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have created

This week is paraprofessional week and we thank all Elves educational and therapy assistants for their tireless dedication to the Elves community.

As we wish everyone an extended long weekend and to those who celebrate, a Happy Easter we would also like to recognize:
Tesesa Vano, Eva Rothe, Gale Galenza and Diana Gomez for time volunteered in support of Elves on March 28, 2024. The team spent two hours at Elves and prepared visual schedules and social stories for the Elves FASD Respite Program.
RBC Foundation will also additionally support Elves Special Needs Society with a $1,500.00 donation toward our program.
Thank you again to the volunteers and RBC!

Support persons with Down Syndrome by wearing crazy socks. To learn more about Down Syndrome visit Edmonton Down Syndrome Society.
https://www.edss.ca/home