News

Celebrating 40 Years of BridgeWay

27 6 月, 2024
Preschool kids play with building bricks in while sitting on floor in daycare

This year (2024) marks BridgeWay Family Centre’s 40th Anniversary! As an agency, we are celebrating 40 years of supporting families, 40 years of playing and learning, and 40 years of helping to build a stronger community. Our theme for the year has been The 80s; a nod to the decade that BridgeWay began. Here’s how we celebrated!

Celebrating with Families

It wouldn’t be a BridgeWay celebration without our families. We celebrated “BridgeWay’s Birthday” in our centres with food, birthday themed activities, 80s decorations, and, of course, cake!

THANK YOU for celebrating this important milestone with us.

#Throwback Photos

Leading up to our Annual General Meeting, we posted photos from the past 40 years, dating back to the 80s! You can see all these photos on our Instagram under #40YearsOfBridgeWay. The captions include facts about BridgeWay and how we’ve changed and grown over the last four decades.

2024 Annual General Meeting

BridgeWay’s 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was filled with celebrations!

Councillor Alvin Tedjo, MPP Nina Tangri, MPP Rudy Cuzzetto and MP Charles Souza all attended with certificates to recognize BridgeWay’s 40th Anniversary.

The three Gurowka Scholarship winners (two are pictured, third and fourth from the right) spoke lovingly about BridgeWay and the Healthy Start programs; expressing their gratitude for the scholarship and the opportunity to advance their education. Members of the Gurowka family (Kim and Joe, pictured on the far right) attended our AGM to congratulate the winners.

This Shirley Gurowka scholarship fund was set up in honour of the life and legacy of Shirley Gurowka, the founder of the Healthy Start program back in 1984.

Lory and Blanka spoke about their time with BridgeWay; first as clients, then as board members, and eventually as staff; highlighting the importance of the connections they’ve made with children, families and colleagues.

“The agency has operated under five different names, and I’ve been here through all of them. While many things have changed over the years, many things have stayed the same. I found my village to raise my children and countless families have as well over the last 40 years. I found friends 36 years ago, added new ones along the way, and I found a place where I could serve my community for 33 years.”

Lory Wolter, former CEO of BridgeWay

Want to know a little more about the history of BridgeWay? You can take a look into the last year and the past 40 years in our 2023-2024 Annual Report.

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