The Historical Society of St. Boniface and Maryhill Community were one of 25 groups invited to participate and showcase our organizations in “Somebody Should do Something” event which was held on Thursday evening November 14th at the Elmira District Secondary School. The doors opened at 6 p.m. with groups showcasing their organization in their own community.
Keynote speaker was Doug Griffiths, Chief Community builder who spoke on how we connect to each other and how to improve our communities. His topic was “Somebody Should Do Something” and spoke on his book 13 Ways to Kill Your Community”.
He spoke on the 13 ways: 1 – Forget the Water. 2 – Don’t attract business. 3 – Don’t engage Youth. 4 – Deceive Yourself. 5 – Shop Elsewhere. 6 – Don’t Paint. 7 – Don’t Cooperate. 8 – Live in the Past. 9- Shut Out Your Seniors. 10 – Reject Everything New. 11- Ignore Outsiders. 12 – Grow Complacent. 13. Don’t Take Responsibility. He gave examples were given in each case.
On the Friday morning people met at the Community Room at the Woolwich Memorial Centre where he spoke on many communities and how things had worked for them and showed a video. After his talk the group broken into 4 workshops to identify community issues – Affordable Housing, Community Life, Events and Socialization, and Positive Attitude. You had several minutes to brainstorm and then give feedback to the rest of the group. The next several minutes the groups had to see what our community would look like in 15 years and again give feedback. The third time we were to paint a picture and tell a story of where the communities were, where they are now and where they are going.
Before breaking up we, were all encouraged to personally think where we are today and where we want to be tomorrow.
In order to succeed or fail comes down to our attitude and whether we are willing to accept new challenges. “There is always a way to Succeed”.
Thank you to the corporate, media sponsors, supporters and event sponsors who made this 2 day event possible; The Observer, Home Hardware, Woolwich Township, Kraemer, Mersynergy Charitable Foundation, St. Jacob’s Market District, Menno S. Martin, St. Jacob’s Printery Ltd., Weber Fabricating Ltd., Beingessner Home Exteriors, St. Jacob’s Garden Centre, Fairway Lumber, Martin’s Guardian Pharmacy, Peritus , Nedlaw Living Walls, PK Sportswear, Reitzel Bros. Frey’s, Woolwich Community Health Centre, Woolwich Community Services, Elmira District Secondary school, Woolwich Recretion facilities Foundation, Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation, Woolwich Community Fund, Region of Waterloo.
