Retreat to Advance

Yesterday we had our annual staff retreat. We'd outgrown Dave and Busters, so this year it was held in the Playdium. It's a cool building and set up such that you go through this neat passageway which opens into a large room filled with games and activities. The conference room was at the very back and had doors which opened onto the areas where there were go karts and trampolines. Very cool place.

The day was organized with lectures and presentations and team play times interspersed within, operating on the theme, 'a spoonful of sugar ...'. The teams were each asked to think of something that they were proud of, some accomplishment from the year. Nearly the last thing that we did was give opportunity for people to come up and tell about what they felt proud of, what they had achieved in their job. There was no boundary set on what that could be.

When it came time, a long line up formed before the microphone. A diversity of people waited to talk. It's times like these that we see that our 'Vita family' is united as one, even though we come as many. Each person who spoke told a story of a person with a disability - who through teamwork and dedication managed something wonderful in their lives. Learned something, went somewhere, achieved a dream. It was as if they instinctively knew about the core of our job.

We work, but others achieve.

Some of the stories were funny. Some of them were moving. All of them were a tribute to the fact that caring is an active emotion: caring supports, caring encourages, caring teaches, caring believe, caring trusts. During the moments that staff were up each telling their story, you could have heard a pin drop in the room. This was the core of the day.

We left feeling closer and united in purpose. It's Saturday morning and I can't wait for Monday morning, I don't say that often.