Celebrating every opportunity

L’Arche Homefires embraces big, small moments in life

There is no shortage of celebrating at L’Arche Homefires.

Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, baby showers, house warmings and holidays are all marked with music, laughter, cake and smiles at get-togethers that light up the Town of Wolfville.

“We try to mark all of the milestone days of life, whether it’s a big event or small,” says Devon Edmonds, finance co-ordinator with L’Arche Homefires. “We make sure to celebrate every chance we get.”

L’Arche is a living celebration of life and fellowship, an intentional community, where people both with and without intellectual disabilities live, work, learn and grow together.

L’Arche Homefires operates five homes in the Wolfville area, where core members reside and are supported by a combination of people who live in the home with them, and others who come to help.

“It’s not really about the work of supporting people with intellectual disabilities,” Edmonds says. “It’s about sharing our lives together.”

L’Arche also supports a number of people who live independently in their own apartments and take part in day programs at the Wolfville premises.

L’Arche Homefires operates Applewicks, a candle-making and weaving workshop, which makes beautiful products for retail sale and custom orders for weddings, churches, and special events.

There are also day programs called Cornerstone, and Discoveries. All three programs have come together during COVID and created two bubbles that spend a combination of time at home and in the program. Candles and weaving are sold at its store on Main Street. Unfortunately, the store is currently closed due to COVID restrictions, but there are plans for opening an online store.

With about 80 employees, including 20 or so casual positions, L’Arche Homefires is the second largest employer in Wolfville, after Acadia University.

The candle making operation started in a garage in the early 1990s, with pots and burners.

Candles are a fitting metaphor for L’Arche, Edmonds points out, as an organization working to create communities of belonging and a more human society.

“It’s about trying to be a light for the world and finding that piece of light and kindness that we can offer.

It’s great because there are lots of steps in making a candle. So somebody can become an expert at wicking, or coring or scraping,” says community leader Louise Curtis. “The emphasis is not on producing hundreds of candles every day. It’s about custom orders.”

L’Arche Homefires turns 40 years old this year. It began in 1981 when and Jeff and Debbie Moore welcomed two men into their home. There are currently 30 L’Arche communities across Canada, and hundreds around the world on every continent except Antarctica.

Core members and staff members at L’Arche Homefires undertake activities together, like organizing fundraising events and travel. They’ve gone to places like Disneyland, and on one occasion a devoted Beatles fan made a pilgrimage to Liverpool, England. It’s part of the core value of doing things with, rather than for, people.

“It’s about making sure our core members are involved in the decisions that affect their lives,” Curtis says. “This means decisions about what they eat, what they do, household chores, etc. and also decisions that impact the larger community.”