Light-A-Dream Celebrates 25 Years of Serving the Community
by Chloë Ranaldi
25 years ago, the candle boutique began as a bet.
In 1999, Michelle Potter, the co-founder of Light-A-Dream, was teaching students with intellectual disabilities at John Abbott College — and her colleague, Matt Bertrand was responsible for work placement at the school.
Potter says at the time, Bertrand felt frustrated about the different kinds of jobs available for students with intellectual disabilities.
“He felt they weren’t stimulating enough, and they were not learning enough marketable skills to bring to the real world,” said Potter.
Potter recalled one class when the students were rolling candles for a fundraiser, and Bertrand had suggested starting their own candle-making business.
“Bertrand said I’ll make you a bet. If we could sell and make money from 300 sets of rolled beeswax candles, I think we could make a business,” said Potter.
Well, Potter lost that bet, and the rest became history.
Light-A-Dream is a non-profit organization, that offers work placement opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities and/or autism.
The non-profit runs a boutique at 63B Donegani street, Pointe-Claire, and all the candles in the store are made by the young adults who are part of their program.
Light-A-Dream is affiliated with the Lester B. Pearson School Board, the students who work at the non-profit are part of the school board’s work placement program.
Students at the boutique are responsible for all the tasks involved in running a store, such as making candles, inventory, washing the floors, and working at the cash register.
“My son Micheal started with Michelle, 25 years ago,” said Carol Tripp. She thanked the non-profit for teaching her son life skills, building his confidence and helping him create lasting friendships.
After years of working at Light-A-Dream, through the student program, Hagop Shahbazian, returned to the charity to be part of their Alumni Program.
Light-A-Dream’s alumni program is for those who have graduated from the work-placement program but still want to be involved in the charity. The group of graduates meet weekly to get together as friends, share ideas, and support the charity.
At first, Shahbazian said making the candles was difficult for him. But he said he would come back each week to work, determined to get better at making the candles each time.
“You’re learning experience and experience comes with your heart and your mind,” he said.
“Light-A-Dream is just like a second family to me, I love them so much, and I care about them,” said Shahbazian.
