Hosting an outing requires much consideration for the needs of disabled guests. But with a little extra effort, the event can be a memorable one.
MANY charitable events are held nowadays. However, in my almost 50 years of personal experience with a handicap, I have only come across a few that have been organised exceptionally well. Especially when they are done for the disabled and older persons.
Last week, however, I was delighted to be involved in one such project. And so were about three dozen other disabled persons. All of them were elderly and accompanied by their faithful caregivers and volunteers.
The event was held at Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur and organised by Mid Valley City, in support of Petpositive, the animalassisted therapy non-profit national society in which I serve as president.
Little did we realise that we were about to take part in a half-day outing that would last a long time in our memories.
Mid Valley City’s initiative was supported by Mid Valley Megamall, Cititel Mid Valley and Boulevard hotels and The Gardens shopping centre that are all connected within the same area.
The organisers’ hospitality began at the car park. This is where I think every event involving the physically disabled should start.
Nearly a dozen parking slots at Cititel’s valet parking were blocked off for the hotel’s handicapped patrons.
This was a tremendous help, especially for the majority of the physically-disabled guests with Parkinson’s disease. This meant that they didn’t have to walk or wheel themselves very far to get to our meeting point.
It was also a great relief for some of Petpositive’s other senior guests with HIV/AIDS who came in their wheelchairs. The morning event quickly turned out to be a rather exciting adventure of sorts.
We were split into two groups. The physically disabled went for free eye checks whilst the blind guests, who numbered more than a dozen, had free haircuts at La’Mode, a professional hairstyling centre on the first floor.
I decided to “abandon” my wheelchair friends and joined the blind. The haircut offer was too tempting to resist!
Everyone at La’Mode had smiling faces and warmly welcomed us. They were only too happy to move away their regular chair to make way for my wheelchair when it was my turn for a haircut.
In fact, wherever we went, we were escorted by the top-notch staff in the public relations section of Mid Valley – something not usually seen at other charitable events.
They helped us manoeuvre our wheelchairs, held the lift doors open for us, met us at the right floors, etc.
We could not help but feel like VIPs for the day, which is exactly what we were at the function.
Many more surprises awaited us, some of which Mid Valley kept secret from me until the last minute.
We were treated to a grand eight-course Chinese luncheon at Cititel complete with live traditional Chinese instrumental music on stage.
As this was my very first yee sang lunch, I was at a loss as to what to do, particularly how to toss the ingredients for good luck.
The luncheon ended with Mid Valley City pledging RM10,000 worth of equipment for Petpositive’s centre. (Incidentally, we are still looking for a bungalow in Petaling Jaya to operate from.)
The finale of the outing was a world-class acrobatic performance by a youth troupe from China. We were given the best seats in the house.
Every one of us enjoyed the show thoroughly. At one point, I turned around and even saw the blind smiling. Some of their sighted volunteers were describing to them what was going on.
Source: The Star
No comments:
Post a Comment