The Jackson Family

By: Shelly Greenberg

The Jackson family has been involved with Community Living Toronto’s Community Supports since 1992. At that time, their young daughter Tammy had been a patient in Sick Children’s hospital for two and a half years as a result of complications from E. Coli. The family requested Family Supports to assist them in coordinating supports for Tammy and to find resources and supports for their son Ronnie. After Tammy’s release from hospital, the family volunteered for the Sick Children’s Telethon for many years.

Their son Ronnie has attended Community Living Toronto’s day support programs since 2001 and is currently attending Scarborough Adult Development Program (ADP).

The Jackson family has been a recipient of the Scarborough Holiday Hamper program for several years. Mrs. Jackson reports that: “the hampers are wonderful. We really appreciate all the gift cards, especially the ones for No Frills. These cards allow us to buy much needed groceries. We are on a very tight budget as our rent is very high and my husband only gets a very small pension. Without this hamper program, my family would be a bit depressed and we wouldn’t know what to do about the holidays. It really helps us to have a wonderful holiday.”

Mr. Jackson also shared that “the hamper program with the gift cards allows us to buy Christmas gifts for each other. It also lets us buy small gifts for the people in our lives who are important to us and who we like to thank. The gift cards truly help us all year round, as we use them when we need to buy food. To thank Community Living Toronto, I volunteer to play Santa at Scarborough Adult Development Program every year. The participants, staff at ADP and my family look forward to this event every Christmas.”

Tammy Jackson lives with serious health issues. She said that “knowing my family will receive gift cards and food helps to take my mind off my health problems. I really like the movie passes, as the show is very expensive. The gift cards also let me buy clothes for myself.”

Ronnie Jackson always gets quite excited when talking about Christmas. He told me that his favourite thing is “sitting on Santa.”

The Jackson family would like to express their deep gratitude for all the Community Living Toronto supports they receive.

“HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE”

Santa waving “Hello!”

Download the full PDF version of this newsletter here: Connections December- Jan 2019