President’s Report

Spring has finally arrived and with it comes our annual membership drive.  Membership chair Betty Karsh has been busy organizing this year’s campaign and most of you who have volunteered to canvas should have received your kits by now.  This is our only fund raising event for the years so when the volunteer canvasser calls, please support your community association and purchase your annual membership.  Your membership fees help in the publishing of our monthly newsletter and allow us to continue to support community events such as Winterfest, Earth Day, Heritage Day and the Summer Concert Series.  Without this financial support, some of these events would not be possible.  If you miss the canvasser or we were not able to have someone canvass your street, you can always purchase your membership on-line through our web site at www.ccranews.com .  Alternately you can fill out the form in the newsletter and drop it off with your payment at our drop box in the Port Union Rec Centre.  We still need canvassers for a number of streets.  The list is elsewhere in this newsletter.  Please give Betty a call if you are able to volunteer to canvass and help support your community association.

We still have not had a volunteer come forward to take on the Newsletter Distribution Chair.  As a result those duties have been taken over by Treasurer Tony Sibley on an interim basis.  We will try to do our best in managing the newsletter distribution as Tony now has dual executive responsibilities

This past month Larry Field  Manager, Government Liaison at Toronto Region Conservation Authority retired.   For many years Larry led the Port Union Waterfront Trail Working Committee. This committee made up of representatives from CCRA, West Rouge Community Assoc. the City of Toronto and the Conservation Authority, was formed under the chairmanship of Larry in the early 1990’s .  There were times during the approval process when we thought the trail would never be a reality due to some level of government or agency having an issue that threatened to delay or defer the project.  Larry always was optimistic that we could overcome these issues and pushed where and when necessary to make this trail a reality.  On behalf of the Centennial Community Thank You Larry and Best Wishes in your retirement.

Earth Day was celebrated on Saturday April 24^th.  Thanks to Events Chair Heather Lemieux for her help in the organizing of this event and thanks to all the volunteers who came out to participate in cleaning up our community.  It amazes me as to how much garbage can accumulate in our community over a winter.

Looking ahead to next month, Highland Creek Heritage Day will be held Saturday June 19^th.  This is a day long community event for the whole family so mark the date on your calendars now.  More details will be in our June newsletter.

This year municipal elections will be held on October 25^th.  CCRA along with West Rouge Community Association and Highland Creek Community Association will be hosting an all candidates meeting for councilors and school trustees on Monday September 13^th.  We’ll have more details on this meeting in our June newsletter.

Jeff Forsyth

President