{"id":1533,"date":"2012-07-05T09:42:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T15:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2012-07-05T09:42:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T15:42:25","slug":"abbotsford-special-adventurers-and-408-squadron-tour-west-edmonton-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=1533","title":{"rendered":"Abbotsford Special Adventurers and 408 Squadron tour West Edmonton Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abbotsford Special Adventurers and 408 Squadron tour West Edmonton Mall<\/h2>\n

June 28, 2012<\/p>\n

\u00a0By Captain Geoff Dear<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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The Abbotsford Special Adventurers (orange shirts), and members of 408 Tac Hel Sqn, who were their hosts for a day at West Edmonton Mall, pose in front of the mall\u2019s pirate ship. Credit: Capt Geoff Dear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Friday, June 1, 2012, the Abbotsford Special Adventurers<\/a> (ASA) found themselves in front of West Edmonton Mall\u2019s pirate ship, along with members of 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron (under the command of 1 Wing Kingston, Ont., but based at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton, Alta.,) for the kick off to their much anticipated three-day Alberta excursion.The excursion included exploring Canada\u2019s famous mall, before travelling by bus to Calgary to visit the equally popular zoo.<\/p>\n

In 1983, Bill Blades realized the local programs in the Abbotsford, B.C., area did not provide opportunities for members with disabilities. He approached his local Kiwanis Club and the concept of a non-profit community recreation program for people with disabilities took off. The Special Venturers was born as part of the Scouting organization. In 2005, the group moved out from under the Scouting umbrella and became known as the Abbotsford Special Adventurers (ASA).<\/p>\n

Master Corporal Cindra Brooks, a 408 Squadron member who lived in Abbotsford during the mid-1980s, was an active member with this group. She still keeps in touch with her community back home, so she brought the Edmonton visit the attention of the squadron. Soon, squadron volunteers joined in the big day, helping to host and escort the ASA members and sharing in their unique day at West Edmonton Mall.<\/p>\n

Galaxyland \u2013 with bumper cars and roller coasters being the big ticket items \u2013 and the water park \u2013 with its wave pool \u2013 were popular spots for the ASA members. Later in the day, the group went to the sea lion show and then met up at \u201cbuild a bear\u201d where each made their own ASA bear to take home. The day concluded with dinner at the \u201cOld Spaghetti Factory\u201d restaurant where everyone traded stories about their adventures and the ASA members said farewell to their new friends from 408 Squadron.<\/p>\n

Warrant Officer Janet Melnychuk, one of the squadron\u2019s volunteers, said, \u201cIt was fabulous, refreshing, grounded you and made you feel back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sergeant Kelly Vogan smiled and said it was like \u201csoul food\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abbotsford Special Adventurers and 408 Squadron tour West Edmonton Mall June 28, 2012 \u00a0By Captain Geoff Dear On Friday, June 1, 2012, the Abbotsford Special Adventurers (ASA) found themselves in front of West Edmonton Mall\u2019s pirate ship, along with members of 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron (under the command of 1 Wing Kingston, Ont., but based at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton, Alta.,) for the kick off to their much anticipated three-day Alberta excursion.The excursion included exploring Canada\u2019s famous mall, before travelling by bus to Calgary to visit the equally popular zoo.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-408-squadron-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}