LaFF Lines
LaFF Community Association Newsletter
Edition 5 | Winter 2021
Activity kits prove to be popular hit
Success of Holiday Cheer kits spurs on additional campaigns
The kits keep coming from Ladysmith Family and Friends.
It should come as no surprise the impact of LaFF’s efforts to fundraise and connect with community continues to ripple outward.
The organization’s 12 Days of Holiday Cheer kits were brainstormed as a creative fill-in for the annual Breakfast With Santa FUNdraiser, which was of course cancelled due to Covid-19. And while the effort was an enormous success, it also sparked community interest in supporting additional kits upcoming for both Family Day and Spring Break.
“It just snowballed,” says Jacqueline Neligan, LaFF executive director, adding that sponsors quickly stepped forward to help cover the costs for filling the kits — with items like a nutritional pasta salad, self-care items, family crafts, a family swim pass and an activity idea key chain. “So families don’t have to feel obligated to buy, but if they are able we encourage them to pay it forward.”
With 75 Family Day kits going out in mid-February, LaFF is already busy working on another round of outreach for Spring Break, which PacfiCare has already stepped up to support.
“In this time when we can’t physically be there as we’re used to, we find these unique ways, which also enable us to keep supporting families in the future,” Neligan says. “Our goal is to continue to be able to offer these kits to families.”
Other LaFF programs continue with scheduled online presentations and distanced in-person pick-ups.
“I’m grateful we can still contribute something,” says Monica Stieda, program facilitator. “It’s not as grand, but I’m happy with the connections we do make.”
Cash donations will be accepted or send a donation anytime via e-transfer using: ilovetolaff@shaw.ca. Donations of any amount are gratefully accepted to assist LaFF with continued programming.
LaFF Community Association
The introduction of the LaFF Community Association and this quarterly update are the result of a generous 4-1 donation ($100,000 to $25,000 fundraised in the community) from the Fred and Karen Green Foundation made early last year.
The Association provides an opportunity for Ladysmith and surrounding residents to support LaFF and have that support reach further than ever before.
Ladysmith mayor credits LaFF for new connections
Mayor Aaron Stone grew up in Ladysmith, but credits LaFF for helping his family make new connections after their son was born.
It’s easy to become isolated as new parents.
Even if you’ve grown up in a community and have that inherent network of friends and family connections, isolation can sneak up on you.
Ladysmith mayor Aaron Stone and his family are a case in point.
Stone grew up in Ladysmith and his wife Jacquie in Lake Cowichan. They met in Vancouver, but knew they wanted a ‘small-town experience’ in which to raise their family.
“After much investigation, deliberation and consideration, we chose to come back to Ladysmith,” Stone explains, adding that just as the couple were joined by their son, Tyson, he was also elbows-deep in maintaining his business, Uforik Computers, which he’d launched the previous year.
“I was very busy trying to get the business off the ground and we settled into the new-parent routine and our friends and family stopped coming by daily as is to be expected,” he says.
“Although we had a great but small friends and family support network, it wasn’t enough anymore. Through my work and her newness to Ladysmith, we became quite isolated. We had trouble forming new connections, friendship and peer support. It was a tough time.”
The couple found Ladysmith Family and Friends, as well as other programs, and through the group at LaFF, made all important connections with other parents and supports.
“From there we settled in, broadened our network of friends and support and really started to feel like this was not mine, but ‘our’ home,” Stone says, adding that it’s the focus on connections that stand out.
“The feeling of being connected to a group of caring, supportive and helpful people who make it clear everyday through words and actions that they are here solely for our children and our families,” he says. “The word community takes on a different meaning at LaFF. It is more than a town, or a place, or a group of people. It is a loving support system, a safety net and a warm hug — all at once.”
“When we hear, ‘It takes a community to support a family to raise a child’ I know what this means,” says Stone, who was elected mayor in 2014.
“I know what it means to the amazing people at LaFF and everyone they have touched, because we have been touched and it’s given our family a foundation in Ladysmith that is both rock solid and also full of hope and love.”
Program staffer played key role in LaFF launch
Monica Stieda was instrumental in founding Ladysmith Family and Friends.
Monica Stieda
Others had already planted the seeds — in the form of a family playgroup at Frank Jameson Community Centre— from which LaFF would grow and blossom. But Stieda proved to be the fortuitous gardener whose timely arrival in Ladysmith enabled her to recognize the need and envision the program the playgroup could become.
Prior to moving to Ladysmith with her husband and two boys (aged two weeks and two years, at the time), Stieda was on the board of directors at West Side Family Resource Program in Vancouver. So she was uniquely suited to appreciate the solid foundation the informal playgroup presented, upon which to build additional resources.
She and a handful of others wasted little time in pushing the project forward.
Before long space in a portable at Ladysmith Primary was secured, and elements such as food sharing, toy and clothing exchanges, and information resources were added.
“It’s been a passion of mine ever since,” says Stieda, adding that everyone was volunteer parents for the first few years.
Although she spent a few years away from LaFF working for Nanaimo Family Life, she returned as a paid employee after executive director Jacqueline Neligan was hired, and called with a job offer.
And while it’s a job, she is in the rare employment position.
“I see it as a gift that has been given to me,” she says. “I just think about all the kids and parents I’ve met, the babies I’ve held, and the stories we’ve shared together. It’s the biggest gift, and I feel so grateful for the privilege of families allowing me to be part of their lives.”
Ladysmith Family and Friends Society (LaFF) is a non-profit society created in 1995 and run by a volunteer board of directors. Our programs seek to reduce isolation many parents and caregivers feel, provide opportunities for children to socialize, and to build community.