Adrian Polidano

We’ve got exciting news to share! Owners of McDonald’s in Durham Region have pledged $500,000 in support of Grandview Kids Believe campaign for a New Grandview Children’s Centre in Ajax.

On May 2nd, 22 McDonald’s restaurants in Durham Region will be supporting Grandview Kids on McHappy Day as their first fundraising initiative.

For those who don’t know, McHappy Day is a nationwide fundraising event where $1 from every Big Mac® sandwich, Happy Meal® and any sized hot McCafé® beverage sold will be donated to Canada’s 14 Ronald McDonald Houses and other local children’s charities across Canada.

Last year, eight McDonald stores across the Durham Region participated in McHappy Day in support of Grandview Kids. This year, on May 2, 22 locations across Durham Region will be supporting Ronald McDonald Houses as well as Grandview Kids.

Wondering which McDonald’s restaurants are participating? Check out the list below:

McHappy Day Locations Supporting Grandview Kids:

1.       Garden & Taunton –  200 Taunton Rd E, Whitby, ON L1R 3H8

2.       Brock Street & 401 – 1301 Brock St S, Whitby, ON L1N 9K2

3.       Thickson & Highway 2 – 1615 Dundas St E, Whitby, ON L1N 2L1

4.       Walmart at Brock & Taunton Road –  4100 Baldwin St S, Whitby, ON L1R 3H8

5.       222 Bayly Street West, Ajax, L1S 3V4

6.       135 Kingston Road East, Ajax,  L1S 7J4

7.       1951 Ravenscroft Road, Ajax, L1T 0K4

8.      Walmart- 270 Kingston Rd. E., Ajax

9.       1369 Harmony Rd. N., Oshawa L1H 7K5

10.       Walmart 1471 Harmony Rd. N., Oshawa L1H 7K5

11.       1349 Simcoe St. N., Oshawa L1G 4X5

12.       501 Ritson Rd. S., Oshawa L1H 5K3

13.       1300 King St. E., Oshawa L1H 8J4

14.       Oshawa Centre 419 King St. W., Oshawa L1J 2K5

15.       Walmart 450 Stevenson Rd. S., Oshawa L1J 5N6

16.       2387 Highway # 2, Bowmanville L1C 3K7

17.       Walmart 2320 Highway # 2, Bowmanville L1C 3K7

18.       1000 Regional Rd. N. (at Hwy 115), Newcastle L1B 1L9

19.       1300 Kingston Rd, Pickering

20.       1899 Brock Rd, Pickering

21.       1899 Brock Rd, Pickering – Walmart

22.       B4 Beaver Ave, Beaverton, ON L0K 1A0

About McDonald’s commitment to Grandview Kids:

McDonald’s has had a long standing relationship of support with Grandview Kids that goes beyond McHappy Day®.

The commitment of Durham Region McDonald’s to help Grandview Kids has brought us our therapy pool, our closed-in accessible playground and the ability to help more kids throughout Durham Region receive the life-changing services provided by Grandview.

“Grandview is an incredibly special place,” says Mike Forman, local McDonald’s owner. “Once you walk into Grandview Children’s Centre, you can see the kids and families working so hard to reach their goals. It’s empowering, encouraging and inspiring. It’s hard to not want to do everything you can to help.”

We are looking forward to continuing this partnership with McDonald’s and are incredibly thankful for their support.

Grandview Kids’ Physiotherapist Marj Kennelly didn’t always plan on spending her time working with children. It wasn’t until connecting with one patient at Ongwanada (a children’s outpatient centre in Kingston) that Marj’s passion for working with children was sparked.

Kennelly recalls one young patient during her time there who really inspired her.

“All you had to do was look at his face,” recalls Kennelly. “He was so engaging and wanting the attention and wanting you to play and help him figure out what he was going to do. He inspired me to go in this direction, more than anybody else. The kids kind of call to you and you really feel like you could make a big difference for them. That’s what’s moved me to peadiatrics and what’s kept me here.”

Eventually, Kennelly’s life brought her to Oshawa, where she has  worked at Grandview Children’s Centre  as a physiotherapist for the past 30 years

For Marj, stand out moments happen almost every day. One particularly moving story, though, would be Ryan’s. Ryan was a normally developing child who had one major medical event that changed his life and his family’s lives forever.

This family used to spend their summers camping and enjoying the outdoors. After Ryan’s medical event, the family struggled to adapt to this new change. So, Marj decided that she would help them figure out how to continue to enjoy nature.

“We found them a lifejacket that was going to work for him, figured out his positioning in the canoe and since then…they travel with a camper and bring all of their equipment – he has a lot of specialized equipment – they pack it into the camper and bring it with them. It hasn’t slowed them down, they are still out and enjoying the things that they love,” says Kennelly.

Ryan’s mom, Kelly Smigielski, is incredibly thankful for the extra work Marj has put in for Ryan. She says that being able to see Ryan enjoying a paddle with his family again brought tears to her eyes.

“Ryan and Marj have a very unique relationship, one he has not had with any other therapist,” says Kelly Smigielski. “I know that she is always looking out for what is best with Ryan and how everything and anything can be improved to help him move through his life experiences.”

Marj has made house visits to make sure Ryan is moving safely around the house, checks to make sure that his home equipment is properly fitted and even attended his high school transition meeting to lend her expertise to the school team.

So, how does Marj come up with such unique and successful ideas for kids like Ryan?

“I don’t think we have to re-invent the wheel, I think we need to go out and look for people who are doing amazing things and then try and put our Grandview stamp on it and really pull Grandview forward so we can be on the leading edge,” says Kennelly.

Coughs, fevers & sneezes, oh my!

It’s that dreaded time of year again! It’s cold and flu season. Here at Grandview, we understand that illness can rear its ugly head at any time, paying no attention to regularly scheduled appointments.

Grandview Children’s Centre is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment for everyone visiting the centre. We want to keep everyone who visits Grandview feeling healthy and well.

So, what should you do if you’re experiencing some nasty symptoms right before your Grandview appointment? Reschedule! Check out our guidelines below for what symptoms mean you should probably reschedule that appointment.

Our Guidelines:

Grandview Children Centre’s Disease Exclusion Guidelines

Winter months can be daunting with low temperatures and nasty weather keeping kids cooped up indoors. If you have a room or a basement with some open space, a tip for keeping your kids active indoors is to make a fun indoor obstacle course.

How to make the obstacle course:

You can stack up cushions to make hurdles, make agility pathways by taping lines on the floor, and include stations like jumping jacks and bean bag toss. You even can use hula hoops or empty laundry baskets as targets and rolled up socks as bean bags.

Fundamental movement skills like jumping, throwing, and catching are very important for the physical development of a child. It’s incredibly important to keep kids active all year round, even if that means taking a bit of extra effort during the colder months.

Let your kids help with the building and everyone is sure to have fun!

Thanks to Natalyn Hibbs, Physical Literacy Coordinator for this fun tip! If you want more where this came from, check out our Active Start program with Natalyn!

Grandview Kids Research Associate, Dr. Meghann Lloyd, is recruiting 3-5 year old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) for a motor skill intervention study in Oshawa.

All children will receive 12 weeks of intervention for 2 hours/week. The motor skill intervention is an instructional play-based program that will take place at the UOIT Physical Activity and Motor Behaviour lab and will be run by highly trained personnel as well as graduate and undergraduate Kinesiology students at UOIT. Children will be randomly assigned to either Group 1, which receives the intervention first, or Group 2, which receives the intervention second. Children will participate in 3 assessments and playdates in addition to the intervention sessions. We aim to see if motor skills, social skills and behavioural skills improve after the intervention.

For more information please contact Dr. Meghann Lloyd Meghann.lloyd@uoit.ca.

On Sunday, January 7th Meridian Credit Union’s District Vice President Dan MacKay and the Oshawa Generals President & Governor Rocco Tullio presented Grandview Children’s Foundation with a cheque for $3,145!

These funds were raised from Meridian auctioning off their warm up jerseys at the beginning of the Oshawa Generals season. Meridian decided the proceeds from this auction would to go to Grandview Kids.

Grandview Children’s Foundation Executive Director of Development Brigitte Tschinkel and Grandview Children’s Foundation’s Board Treasurer Steve Leslie were happy to accept the donation.

Thank you so much for your generosity and support, Meridian Credit Union and Oshawa Generals! We truly appreciate it.

You can read more about the game here.