Hundreds attend Dunkirk TRC Expo

The Resource Center held its Expo in Dunkirk for the first time, and staff and service recipients declared the event a success.

TRC Expo was created in 2006 as a way to help employees understand what goes on throughout the vast agency. The event was such a success that in subsequent years, the community was invited to attend. The previous Expos were held in Jamestown only, and although some TRC employees who work in Northern Chautauqua County attended, a lot of people couldn’t make it.  So this year, the Expo expanded to Dunkirk.

The inaugural Dunkirk Expo was held June 3 (The Jamestown Expo had taking place May 19 and 20.) in TRC’s facility at 186 Lake Shore Drive West.  Each department sets up a display that is designed to tell people what goes on in that department in a fun way. The departmental displays were set up in the gymnasium in the Day Services area, in the Work Center area and the former cafeteria.

The Expo ran from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The morning was busy, with many employees and service recipients looking as though they were having the time of their lives as they went from table to table, playing games and collecting prizes and giveaways.

This year’s favorite display was the one created by TRC’s Residential Division.  Staff created a makeshift jail (complete with a plastic bucket for a toilet), outside of which was posted a “Most Wanted” poster featuring Residential administrators.  Employees equipped with handcuffs and nightsticks patrolled the Expo, arresting unsuspecting people who could only be bailed out if kindhearted passersby were willing to answer questions about TRC.

Representatives from the New York Masonic Safety Identification Program were on hand to register children in its database, collecting pertinent information that can be used to try to help find children in the event they ever disappear.

The members of TRC’s Executive Management Team donated items that people could win via a Chinese auction. The event generated $1,363 that went toward a campaign to raise money so TRC's Diagnostic & Treatment Services can switch to Electronic Health Records.