We have many guests who make unanticipated trips to Jeneece Place without time to pack before they arrive. Some show up with only the clothes they are wearing. Today we had a fantastic donation of handmade soap from Two Blooms Design Studio that guests can use.

The Jeneece Place community is a marvelous team! They keep the donations and love pouring in. 

Just this week we've several penny donations, a new collection of cozy and colourful knitted blankets, bouquets of flowers for inside the house from previous guests, and a new rocking horse for the games room. 

The Jeneece Place volunteers are an amazing crew who help the house run smoothly. This week is National Volunteer Week, and we’re taking the opportunity to say a big thank you to all of our volunteers! We invited them to the house for some treats, tea, and coffee and to meet each other. Here are some of the tasks they do to help our families:

We've experienced another lively and cheerful holiday at Jeneece Place! The Easter Bunny set out baskets full of goodies for each of the families staying at the house and hid chocolate eggs in the backyard for the children to hunt. Savory smells wafted from the kitchen as the turkey, potatoes, vegetables, and desserts were prepared. Families sat in the dining room and ate a buffet-style dinner while chatting with each other. Thank you to all the staff, volunteers, and guests who made the day a success!

These are a delicous and festive way to snack on chocolate in the spring!

Easter Egg Nest

Boil gently:

• 2 Cups sugar
• 1/2 Cup butter
• 1/2 Cup cocoa
• 1/2 Cup milk
• 1 Tbsp corn syrup

Add:

• 3 Cups rolled oats
• 1/2 Cup dried unsweetened coconut

Drop onto wax paper and add 3 mini eggs to each nest. Place in refrigerator to cool.

Extra Info

Check out this great video! CTV's Bruce Williams stopped by Jeneece Place on Thursday to interview some of our staff and guests. Thanks to the whole community for their continued support!

Do you like flowers? Do you like mothers? Do you want to support mothers and families who need to stay at Jeneece Place while their child is receiving medical care?

Last week, families at Jeneece Place were the lucky recipients of beautiful premature baby sleepers, hats, and shirts – gifts brought to a recent birthday party. Whose birthday, you may wonder? Why, one year old Kimowan Wilkinson and her thoughtful parents Suzanne and Andrew! This family knows the importance of premie clothes, and this first birthday was a huge milestone. Kimowan, born weighing less than 2 pounds, spent the first 110 days of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit at Victoria General Hospital.

The community that supports Jeneece Place continues to amaze and inspire us! Today another donation was dropped off: homemade knitted slippers in various sizes, styles, and colours. There are tiny ones for newborn babies and bigger ones for older kids (or adults with very small feet!). Now our guests' toes will be warm and fashionable! Thanks again to everyone in the community who continues to be involved with the house!

Our children's library shelves are looking pretty full! Thanks to Peninsula Connections for Early Childhood's "1000 X 5" Children's Book Recycling Project, our library has an additional 100 books for the kids to enjoy. The PCEC hopes that every child will have 1000 books read to them by the time they are 5 years old. Promoting literacy at an early age increases every child's chance of success throughout  their lives. Thanks for the generous donation!

A knock on our door and in walked two representatives of the Mayfair Aeropostale store holding giant bags full of something soft and fuzzy. They brought us bears! We're huge fans of bears here at Jeneece Place and the Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island (check out the annual Bear Wear event!), so we were happy to receive this generous and cuddly donation. Thanks Aeropostale!

At about 2:00 A.M. every morning there's a thump on our front door. The news has arrived! The Times Colonist generously donates two copies of the newspaper to Jeneece Place every day. This is a wonderful way to keep guests connected to the world outside the hospital. Plus, the sodoku and crossword puzzles are always a hit. Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Two women walked into Jeneece Place today with a mission: to bring toys to the children. The women are part of a community effort to spread random acts of kindness throughout Victoria. They brought stuffed animals, books, toys, and costumes, each chosen for a particular child. They certainly brightened our day!

Kathleen Lynch donated a copy of her book The Adventures of Cal the Causeway Gull  to Jeneece Place today. Kathleen captures Cal's life in watercolours as he wanders among some of our favourite Victoria landmarks. We love having local artists contribute to the house and show an interest in the families who stay here! Her book will be a hit with our guests. Check out Kathleen's website if you'd like to see more of her work.

Our kitchen has been bright and colourful this month! A family staying with us brings fresh produce from their garden to share with the house, and the last few weeks we've had many orange and red vegetables. We have a fascinating variety of squash and pumpkins- many of which we'd never seen before! The bowls on the counter have also been overflowing with tomatos and cucumbers just waiting to be made into a delicious salad. How festive!

The Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island and Jeneece Place strive to create a comforting atmosphere for stressed families to relax in. We often decorate the house with fresh flowers and volunteers cook dinners and tasty treats for guests to share. During these cold, rainy days we've put the fireplace on and broken out the donated blankets and quilts, so guests sitting in the living room can be warm and cozy.

This weekend the guests at Jeneece Place will be celebrating Thanksgiving together. Jeneece Place volunteers and staff are planning a delicious meal for the families who cannot spend the day with their own friends and family. A turkey, a ham, pies, and other tasty snacks will be available to the guests on Monday. We are so pleased to be able to provide this meal for our guests and bring some brightness to an otherwise stressful time of their lives.

The Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children has a great children's story to tell: we have a new name!

Effective October 1, 2012, our name changed from Queen Alexandra Foundation for Children to Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island.

Jeneece Place's kitchen and design named finalist in prestigious design competition

Jeneece Place's designer, Kimberly Williams Interiors, has been named a finalist for Best Kitchen and Best Interior Design for Jeneece Place in the Construction Achievements and Renovations of Excellence (CARE) Awards given by the Canadian Home Builders Association.

The winners will be announced September 14, 2012. Congratulations Kimberly and Lindsay!

The good weather means that we can once again play outside! Guests have been taking the bikes out for trips down the Galloping Goose Trail and raiding our collection of sports equipment for hockey sticks, nets, whiffle balls, NERF footballs, and so much more. It's good to see people having fun and enjoying the fresh air! 

The Victoria community continues to support and help beautify Jeneece Place. A penny tree painting was commissioned by a previous guest and donated to the house. It now sits just inside the main entrance by a window. Supporters also continue to donate pennies- the collection is large enough that we'll have to roll them again soon!

Cathy Gibson from the Fairmont Empress came to Jeneece Place the other day to drop off welcome bags for families who will be staying at Jeneece Place. Cathy and the Empress crew have been assisting Jeneece for many years and we are very grateful that they have decided to support Jeneece Place. Thank you Empress for all you have done.
Jeneece

On Saturday March 31st Jeneece received a very prestegious honor.  She became the very first Canadian youth to receive "The Changing Our World/Simms Award for Outstanding Youth in Plilanthrophy, International Youth Award"

She accepted the award in front of 400 international guests and extraordinary philanthropists.  Jeneece also received a standing ovation for her efforts.  Thank you Jeneece, you did us all proud.  

Would you like to volunteer at Jeneece Place? Please visit our volunteer page for a list roles and the new application form.

Ty Pennigton, host of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, is blogging about Jeneece and the opening of Jeneece Place. Check out what Ty had to say at typennington.com

The First Nations artists, whose work has been installed at Jeneece Place, gathered with their friends and families on Sunday to bless and unveil their work. Jeneece herself was honoured with a First Nations name of her own - Tla ni kwala tutu - meaning Shining Star. It was a very special day for all involved.

Thanks to Margo Hoffman for bringing her granddaughter Ashlyn Dawn Smith to drop off a cheque from the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board to produce a virtual 360 tour of Jeneece Place. View the 360 virtual tour or come see the facility yourself during the public open house on January 22 from noon - 4pm.

Well in mid- November I went to Nanaimo to help out with an event at the Grand Hotel.  While I was up there I stopped by at Tom Harris to pick up a check for $25,000 for Jeneece Place.  I think that it was really awesome for them to donate that money.  I would like to thank them for all their hard efforts and for thinking of Jeneece Place.  Even Tom Harris gets that it will most likely be the families from that area and further north that will be using this house.  Thank Harris Family for donating to such a worthy cause.

Saturday Sept 3rd Abigail came to visit with Jeneece and presented her with a cheque for $4,000.00 from the Rotary of Port Hardy. Jeneece in return gave Abigail a friendship bracelet. A huge thank you to the Port Hardy Rotary for their wonderful donation.

WOW! Was I excited today to find a message on my facebook page from Ty Pennington. Here is the link to what he said. http://www.typennington.com/post/hometown-hero-jeneece-edroff

I went away for a couple of days and WOW look where we are at?  They are getting ready to put the windows in.  Next week I am headed to camp, I cant wait until I get back after the 20th of August to see the changes.

At the BC Ferries golf Tournament yesterday at Bear Mountain Resort BC Ferries presented Jeneece another $50,000 dollar cheque for Jeneece Place. When Jeneece wasn't hitting balls on the golf course she could be seen driving the Premier around the grounds.  I don't know if Premier Christie Clark had fun but Jeneece sure did.

I went to Vancouver at the beginning of last week and came home on Friday.  I went by the site on Sunday and this is what I saw. WOW! There were no walls up when I left.  This was so neat to see.  Starting to walk through the site now, I can almost picture the rooms finished and the kids running down the hallways.  This is so awesome. Check out more photos on the photo page.

What an awesome day, the sun is shining, its pretty warm and I'm down at the site of Jeneece Place. The construction workers are letting me help out with the cement flooring.  It's great to see how enthusiastic all the fellows are on this project. Tomorrow the framers will start. I can't wait.

I cannot believe how fast this build is going. They will be pouring the rest of the concrete wall tomorrow and then the pipes are going in. It is so awesome to see this going up.  Very cool.  Please check out the photos on my photo page of the progression of this build.  I also wanted to thank WALMART for their donation of over $800.00 to Jeneece Place, thank you for doing your sandwich fundraiser.

It was a wonderful day at Happy Valley School when Principle, Mrs. Magiera handed over a cheque for over $2,000 that the students had raised over a 2 week period. They did such a wonderful job and I am proud of what they accomplished. I wanted to say thanks again for helping me with my project.

Jeneece and many of her supporters and political friends came out in the cold wet rain to celebrate the groundbreaking and the beginning of the build of Jeneece Place.  "I am so excited to be at this point in the project and I am happy that the community is supporting me."