Mayday Club Youth Choir
In 2015, I founded my own federally-registered charity ‘Mayday Club’. The organization’s primary program is the ‘Mayday Club Youth Choir’, which I conduct, lead practices for, and direct. The choir started out with 13 members in Abbotsford and has since grown to over 50 members across BC and Canada using Zoom and other methods of communicating and recording. The choir has published 2 albums, and has performed at over 250 venues and events across BC. The choir presents lectures at UBC for aspiring professionals, and recently appeared live on Global TV to open the 2019 Variety Club Show of Hearts. In spring 2020, the choir was featured in an episode of ‘Our Community’, a documentary series produced by the Kelowna-based film company Render Digital Media. The episode, entitled ‘Normalizing Neurodiversity’ aired on AMI-TV on May 13th 2020.
For the over 50 young people who participate in practices every week – in-person and virtually – the choir is a place where they can come together and fit in no matter what. The choir gatherings have an intense and charged atmosphere of unity, passion, and love for life. Members of the choir are often the victims of bullying or exclusion in everyday life, and the choir offers a place of sanctuary and a chance to build skills and perform. Some past choir members who have graduated from the program have gone on to study counseling, music, or theatre, and they attribute their successes partly to their experiences in Mayday Club Youth Choir. The choir is still primarily volunteer-run. Mayday has a strong team of volunteers and board members who work countless hours every week to keep Mayday Club magical. Mayday Club employs neurodiverse and gender diverse students during the summers to help prepare for the upcoming season. I serve as the board chair, executive director, and direct supervisor of all employees.
Neurodiversity Now Radio
Another initiative I have taken through Mayday Club to improve the lives of neurodivergent people living in my community, is the creation of the Neurodiversity Now (ND Now) radio show. I am the director of the radio show, and am one of the three main co-hosts.
ND Now Radio is a weekly 30-minute broadcast on Civl Radio, hosted by young community members who identify as neurodivergent. The show deals with topics such as inclusion, bullying, advocacy, and more. The purpose of the podcast is to provide a platform for forward-thinking neurodiverse community members to share their opinions, challenges, and triumphs, and to educate listeners about the importance of inclusion. The Neurodiversity Now team believes that neurodiversity is the key to a better future for all of humanity.
