Fort St. John Association for Community Living hosts awards night

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Fort St. John Association for Community Living (FSJACL) hosted an awards night last week for all individuals they support.

The association, the individuals they support, and their families gathered at the Lido on Thursday evening for the event.

Jordan Soggie, the executive director of the FSJACL, says the event highlighted each person’s accomplishments in the last year.

“We had some individuals given awards for engaging in new interests that they were pursuing, and we had some awards for some individuals that moved out onto their own and were doing well in terms of growing their independence,” Soggie said.

The FSJACL team gave out 76 awards during the event.

Soggie says they also gave out an award to the City of Fort St. John’s recreation department for being a partner with the association.

“All the families of the individuals came out, and everyone was kind of dressed up in their suit and ties and getting on stage to receive their awards,” Soggie said.

“It was a really, really fun night to see everybody smile and really feel seen and recognized.”

He says the event fits into the association’s mission of ‘everyone belongs’ and lets the individuals they support know their efforts are seen.

Soggie notes that some individuals in the community have family and friends to cheer them on and celebrate them when they have successes in their lives, but some don’t, so they wanted to celebrate everyone together.

“You can really tell if they’re excited weeks beforehand; some of them went down to Grande Prairie to buy dresses to put on for the wards night,” Soggie said.

“It definitely warms the heart to see everybody feeling appreciated and that they belong in the community.”