As you may have read in prior articles, our strategic planning committee undertook some extensive community engagement, and your Board had a few working sessions to better understand what our community is looking for from your Association. As a result, our Mission and Vision statements have been modified to reflect what your Board sees as our guiding principles in the years to come.
Our Mission is to, “foster an integrated community by providing meaningful and inclusive programs and experiences, safe gathering spaces, and advocacy for the needs and interests of our residents”, and our Vision is “to be an integrated community connecting partners, family, neighbours, and nature”.
Although “words matter”, it is our actions and behaviour that speaks loudly, and defines our culture. This culture starts with our staff, who interact with the public on a daily basis. Over the past decade we have been blessed with friendly and dedicated staff who have developed this culture. How would I define our culture? In a word, openness. Francine and Monica, and after them Karon and Lydia, all built a reputation of friendliness and welcoming to most everyone who sent an email, gave us a call, or simply walked through our doors.
Our facility closure through our major renovations, and then the forced closure through the COVID Pandemic a scant few months after reopening, put our culture to the test, but our fantastic winter skating season, spring soccer program, and new and exciting summer activities have shown that our culture has survived and is now ready to prosper.
Through these trying times Alison, Dawn, and Jessica have continued and built upon the culture of openness that their predecessors built, and that truly define Willow Ridge. Now that reopening is upon us, I encourage all of you to pop over to say hello, sign up for one of the many programs or classes that will be offered, and support our growing user base of tenants that will be offering activities for all ages.
If you have any ideas on the type of things we could do, or better yet, if you would like to develop some programs or activities that might be of interest to others in our community, we are open to new ideas!
I am excited about all that is happening at Willow Ridge, and I hope that over the coming months you can pop by for a visit, sign up (or sign your children up) for some neat activities, shoot some hoops, try out pickleball or tennis, maybe play a couple holes of disc golf, or even pop over for a quick bite from the food trucks when they are around!
In the meantime, stay safe and cool!
Don Boykiw
