In 2004, Dean and small group of parents founded The Autism Aspergers Friendship Society of Calgary (AAFS). An organization driven to build relationships, experience, and acceptance.
Dean Svoboda,
Executive Director
On behalf of Board of Directors of Autism Aspergers Friendship Society of Calgary, it is always a pleasure to look back and summarize another amazing year in a few paragraphs. This past year has been our busiest ever, as has every year been since we started way back in 2004.
I don’t usually look at a lot of numbers but this past fiscal year, there were some pretty crazy numbers. We ran 886 different program activities with over 5500 attendees compared to 742 events the previous year and 490 the year before that.
When I see numbers like that, I can’t help but think of how many ‘firsts’ happened on all those activities. I know firsthand of 2 first fish caught and 10 first time hockey players. I’ve been told that many had their first overnight away from home, a few first jobs, first time on the C-Train, first time at the Saddledome, and more than we can count of new/first friends made.
It’s hard to imagine this all began with 7 families and I sitting down at a kitchen table and saying, “we should get some kids together one night to just play games.”
There were so many highlights this past year, it is impossible to list them all.
Operationally, we created a number of new positions; Operations Manager and 3 new program coordinators. These positions have already created a massive growth in capacity which will allow AAFS to continue to reach new heights.
On the program side, our sports programming has seen immeasurable growth this year as well, as we introduced hockey, mixed martial arts, boxing, and more! We also have started to expand into the rural areas surrounding Calgary. Someone asked me recently where we get all of our amazing program ideas and the answer is simple...our members. Once a member expresses an interest...we do our best to make it happen.
We also had some of our best events ever this year, the Ernie Els for Autism golf tournament moved to a new venue and saw a record number of players, the 2nd Annual AAFSies in September was really one of the best nights ever, and despite temperatures hovering around 0...the Calgary Autism Community again hosted the largest World Autism Awareness Day in Canada.
This September will be our ‘official’ 15th AAFSiversary (although the work started a few years before that). Over the past 15 years, I have been more than fortunate to meet and work alongside so many amazing staff members, volunteers and families without whom none of what we do would be possible.
Our success at the Autism Aspergers Friendship Society of Calgary belongs to our children and families. With the ongoing support from our families, donors, partners, Board, employees, and volunteers, AAFS is ready for another amazing, friend-making, life-changing, stigma defying year.