Thank you for joining our community!

Hello from Sarah and Sierra at the Learning Disabilities Society (LDS)! As LDS entered its 50th year of transforming lives, we wanted to build our community and do our part to make the world a better place. 

When we read that “community is magic” in Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility, it struck a chord with us. While LDS has never attempted a spring fundraiser before, we wondered:

“What would happen if we planted the seed of a small, grassroots campaign, starting with the amazing Mission Makers we see every day in our office—our family of co-workers?

Together, can we make magic?”

YES, WE CAN.

With the launch of the campaign, our people went to work right away! We witnessed the power of individual actions as our staff and instructors spread awareness of the struggles faced by kids with learning differences, the ways to help, and how even one small donation could create a BIG impact!

There truly is power in community. 

Our community of supporters listened!
It wasn’t just our staff and instructors who listened to our call for help. Friends, family, and acquaintances helped share the campaign. Lastly, we would be remiss if we didn’t thank all the businesses who supported us too (see the list below). 

Our community of families participated!
Our community of LDS families not only spread awareness of learning differences but also referred other families to LDS. Thank you for sharing social media posts, newsletters, information, and your stories about LDS! Because of you, we’re able to help more students than ever before!

Our community of Change Makers became engaged!
It’s about creating an impact. And that’s exactly what YOU did! Our Change Makers helped raise OVER $45,000 for our COVID Catch-up Fund and made a BIG impact for children and youth with learning differences! As Alice Wong writes, community “can become a movement for social change.” But you didn’t just raise money, you spread awareness—over 300 new Change Makers subscribed to our newsletter. That’s 300 more individuals who will be informed about learning differences and will have information that can help others. WOW. Thanks!

We’ve made magic together and we cannot thank you enough! 

Thank you for reading!
Sarah & Sierra

___

Sarah Vopni (she/her) brings kindness, positive energy, and a big-picture vision to our team. Sarah has a background in public relations and communications from Humber College and has a BA in Global Development from Queen’s University. She believes in the goals of LDS to support individual lives to help create positive change both personally and in communities.

Sierra Gemma (she/her) is the parent of an adult child with a learning disability and a former LDS parent. She saw how LDS transformed the life of her child and dreams of creating that change for all kids. Sierra has BA in Sociology and History and an MFA in Creative Writing, both from the University of BC, as well as 15 years of working with local nonprofits and building community.