May 2022

Dear All … short Newsletter… lots of news!

In April we basked in our glory, and took the time to plan our 2022 major fundraising effort to celebrate our 20th year.

In May – we are getting ready for this year’s fundraiser - $20 for 20.  We are sending out 20+ quotes/testimonials validating what we do and why we do it.

During June/July/August – we launch the $20 for 20 challenges and an Ontario invitation to visit Europe without leaving the province! AND for the month of June, Canada Helps will enter us into a competition to win $20,000 !!! - every dollar donated to our Charity during their Great Canadian Giving Challenge will give us an entry….read more.

20 Challenges for June-August: Below are a few of the challenges we are contemplating - if you can think of some brilliant challenges – please let us know asap – you have such great imaginations!

Maybe even better, create a dyslexic TikTok dance/challenge that goes viral ??? 

• Walking 20 minutes for 20 days straight

• Surviving 20 days without chocolate challenge (that one’s for me!)

• Cycling 20 kms 20 times

• Go 20 days without any electronic games! (parents might pay more for that!)

• Read 20 books June/July/August

20 Quotes – Where Dyslexia Minds go! We are collecting some priceless quotes – here are a few examples – please do send us some more – they are too good not to repeat !

• “why do they call it the second hand, when in fact it’s the third hand?” SOOO logical…!

• Also when learning to tell time, I said “the little hand tells us the hours and the big hand tells us the minutes…” my client says “no, it’s the other way around… the hour hand is fatter than the minute hand” so now I say “the short fat hand tells us the hours and the tall skinny hand tells us the minutes. NEVER make assumptions!

• A client with a goal of being able to read better, asked me to read one page, and him one page…I replied “no chance… who are we doing this for? I can read.. .” to which he replied “you can never be too good at anything.” LOVE it…!

We are deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Joe Wozny who was our Chair for several years up to 2012.

He was our voice of reason on the Board; he never minded meeting me at Tim Horton’s to discuss the bigger picture and how to get there.  Some of you may remember our Caesar’s Palace Casino Night ? It was a spectacular fundraiser and Joe made sure his band was dressed Vegas style and got us all up and dancing. He led the way whether at work or on the ski hill and I have a feeling he will continue to do so… thank you Joe for all your humour, expertise and generosity, we miss you!

Davis Learning Strategies for K-3 classroom teachers, and homeschoolers are prominent in our goals. 

June 6/7 Online, June 9/10 in person in Texas, and possibly one more in August, online.

We are delighted to see that more and more schools are becoming interested. 

• A school in Nelson has been using these strategies for over a year now;

• a teacher from an elementary Montessori School in Victoria took a recent workshop;

• a school in Saskatchewan sent all the teachers, EAs and admin staff which is beyond wonderful;

• Julie has enjoyed using the strategies with her pre-school Montessori students and

we now have schools in Ontario and BC interested in taking future workshops.  We are noticing that the best results appear to result from a whole school adopting these changes… here’s to many more fabulously open educators!

Youth Philanthropy Initiative: Some of you may be familiar with this ?  High School students are encouraged to pick a charity, gather information about what the do and present this information to their class.

The winners go through to a final and the winners of the final are awarded $1,000.00.  You can imagine we were delighted to hear from three young men who attend Heritage Woods Secondary School, Port Moody.

Here is the link to their script… we find it very useful to see their ‘spin’ on the work that we do.  We are very lucky to have these young men in our world… enjoy !

Wishing you a beautiful spring !

Sue, Laura, Paddy, Nadine, Sharon, Julie, Gisa, Tristan

Our Giving Guide: 

Our $20for20 Fundraising Campaign Page with Canada Helps. Visit our donation page HERE.

Purchase our Gifted with Dyslexia Pins.  Purchase our Pins Here

Plantables.ca Garden Ready Plants & Kits shipped to your door. Ontario & Quebec only. We receive 10% of every sale. Please follow the link to our Plantables information page.
Plantables Garden Ready Plants Here

TruEarth Eco-Friendly Laundry Soap and Products.  20% of all sales go to our Society.  Please follow the link to our Tru-Earth product page to purchase.  Tru-Earth Eco-Friendly Products Here

See how donations can result in tax credits by reading the article below. Read More…Tax Benefits of Charitable Donations

We have Note Cards for sale at The Card Project. Visit The Card Project Here

Partial proceeds go to The WDS from sales and rentals of Ed Roman’s highly acclaimed “Red Omen” video. For more information on renting or buying Red Omen click here 

We gratefully accept donations through our Canada helps charity page. We have a variety of donor options. Thank you !

Canada Helps - General Fund 

Canada Helps Tribute - Donate in honour of or in memory of a loved one.  

Canada Helps Securities - A donation of securities or mutual funds is the most efficient way to give charitably. Since capital gains taxes don't apply, our charity receives the full fair market value when the security is sold, and you get a tax receipt which reflects your larger contribution. This allows you to give more and get more.

We are a registered charity with the PayPal Giving Fund. You can donate to our organization using your PayPal account with no fees. Thank you ! PayPal Giving Fund 

Photo Credits: Photo by Honey Yanibel Minaya Cruz on Unsplash, Photo by Scott Goodwill on Unsplash, Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash, Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash