Our Centre Opening Celebration!

On Sunday 18^th March, the Learning for Life Village came together to celebrate the opening of our new Learning for Life Autism Centre. We had a great cross section of our community from families past and present, staff, volunteers, board members and supporters/donors.

Special thanks to our VIP guests:Prof Cheryl Dissanayake from the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre and the Hon. Josh Frydenberg (Federal MP for Kooyong).

• Cheryl was delighted to help open the centre and spoke about the need for evidence based services for people on the autism spectrum, the high incidence of autism in the community and the need for funding by the NDIS according to functional needs of the person (not just their label!).
• Josh spoke about the importance of early intervention, and having a mother who was a psychologist working in the education space and a sister who is a speech pathologist, he certainly has a good basis for understanding the needs of our L4Life families and the autism community.

There were great activities to keep children amused as their parents chatted amongst themselves and connected with staff and board members. There was face painting by Bailee, a gifted young artist who had a special way with all the kids. Cathy Gleisner provided a variety of activities to cover many interests, her love of our work at L4Life, her excellence as an early childhood educator and love of the children she interacted with is obvious in the photos of the day. The playground was a huge hit! Who needs a jumping castle (cancelled due to the dangerously high winds that day) as the happy kids also showed us. We loved showing off our wonderful playground to all, kindly donated by the Balwyn Rotary Club, and the John and Betty Laidlaw Legacy.

No community event is complete without a sausage sizzle, thank you Glenferrie Gourmet meats for the loan of the BBQ!

The Centre was looking so home like and inviting at our Opening. Thanks to our volunteers: Annie, Rose, Zoe, Sonia, Richard, Natalia and our staff who ran tours and supervised activities. Big thanks also to our Working Bee volunteers and gardeners: Charlotte, Jono, Shayna, Sarah, Celeste, Jennie and Natalia.

Enjoy some fabulous photos of the Opening on Facebook!