AT DAHLIA Living, Heroes are Everywhere!

Our funtastic day filming a DAHLIA Living video featuring a star-studded, superhero cast of our residents & staff! 
By Mary Smith, Board Member

​Hello all, my name is Mary Smith and I am a board member for DAHLIA Living.  As some of you may know, the theme for the DAHLIA Living auction happening on October 19, 2019 (join us and buy tickets online here!), is Heroes & Villains.  To us, our residents, staff and volunteers are all heroes, so we came up with the idea to shoot a video featuring our heroes wearing capes and doing their heroesque things. Our “production crew” set out to visit a few of the houses and meet the resident superheroes!
 
As background, you should know that these visits would be the first time I’ve had a chance to get out to the houses to meet the staff and residents and I was really excited to get the chance to see how this organization worked. Needless to say, I was beyond impressed!
 
Our first stop was Visions, where we met and talked with residents Angelica and Brett, as well as staff members Carisa, Sarah and Fat-Khiya. Our first hiccup came when we realized that the capes we had ordered had not yet arrived, but the resourceful staff sprang into action and created one out of Brett’s pink satin pillowcase and it worked perfectly! We watched as the staff went out of their way to entertain Brett to the point of gleeful laughter – we were all sharing in the laughter at that point. Then, Angelica regaled us with stories about attending a Beyoncé concert with staff members and staying up late – she even had the staff on the run keeping up with her. Angelica then described her plans for her future, which includes attending online classes on technology. She demonstrated how she uses technology to help her operate her wheelchair and iPad - we were in awe. She then explained that her goal is to travel to Olympia to meet with the legislature. Her exact words were that she wanted to go and talk to the legislature about people with disabilities. She explained that she wanted to speak for those that could not talk.  What an impressive woman she is.  A true superhero!

​Our next visit was to Trail House to meet our newest resident, Kenny. As we entered, I was greeted with the best hug I have ever received from Andrew and he gave us a tour of his room. Man, does he love Star Wars!! Then it was off to the back yard to see Kenny. He has only been at the home for a few months, but I could tell right away that Kenny fit right in. The staff, Kiyomi, Farshad, Prosper, Rose and Jean.  were again amazing. They were so attentive with Kenny and seemed to know instinctively what he was saying and what he wanted to have happen for our visit. We took lots of really fun photos of everyone dressed in capes and masks. Kenny insisted that everyone was in a photo with him. 
 
Our final stop was Champion House to get a quick visit with Eva.  She was, as always, working hard. This time she was in the middle of painting but took a quick break to throw on a cape and mask for our photo session.  

​I can’t wait to share the video and all the photos that were taken on our adventure at the auction in October. I’m including a few photos here as a sneak peek. I hope they manage to capture the fun and joy that we had in meeting everyone and playing superheroes! I am so looking forward to seeing the residents and staff I met – and hopefully you too - at the auction!