Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, but rarely as interesting as the wheelchair-accessible picnic table in the McCaul Street Parkette, near U of T’s St. George campus. The table – a gift from the department of occupational therapy’s class of ’98 made through GRADitude, the university’s annual student fund-raising campaign – is designed for wheelchair users in the surrounding community and nearby hospitals. The project was a collaborative effort by U of T, the City of Toronto department of parks and recreation, and the department of occupational therapy in the Faculty of Medicine. Professor Judith Friedland says that it is appropriate that the gift comes from graduates of occupational therapy because “their goal as health professionals is to help people with disabilities to do what they need and want to do in order to lead satisfying and productive lives.”
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