By Shelley Cooke and Kathryn Stocks
Next month, the Centennial Community Recreation Association will be celebrating its 75th anniversary. As we’ve said before, this is a big deal! CCRA is one of the longest running community associations in Toronto, and to reach 75 years means we’ve consistently had amazing people volunteering in this neighbourhood. We thank them for their tremendous enthusiasm in keeping the CCRA going and growing with each new year.
For this special occasion, the CCRA events committee, led by Heather Lemieux, wanted to hold a different type of event that would include a wider range of participants than our dinner dances usually have. That’s why they’ve chosen the Community Challenge. This will be a neighbourhood scavenger hunt and social game held over two days on October 18 and 19.
Open to all ages, participants will choose a team of two to six people and then pick a team member to register and download an app to their smartphone. The app will guide them through local stories and to familiar landmarks with fun challenges, maps, live streams and a leaderboard. “You don’t have to be tech savvy to be able to play,” CCRA President Kathy Rowe said. “Only one team member needs to be able to download the app on a mobile device.”
Each team will play for points and have a chance to win. There will be a $1,000 prize for first place, a $500 prize for second place, and a $250 prize for third place, and there are many other prizes as well. This event is open to all residents of Centennial as well as residents in neighbouring communities.
At the end of the Community Challenge, CCRA will be holding a 75th anniversary celebration on the afternoon of Saturday, October 19. The venue will be announced later on social media and in our October paper. Everyone is welcome to attend whether they played the game or not. CCRA will be serving cake and refreshments, and announcing the winners of the Community Challenge.
A highlight of the party will be an anniversary video produced by local resident Trevor Crawford of Falcn Media Inc. Trevor has spent many hours listening to past and present board members and residents recount stories of what the CCRA has meant to them over the years. The video promises to be entertaining and enlightening, Kathy said. She is grateful to Trevor for his time and dedication to our 75th.
Kathy also sends thanks to the many local organizations that are supporting our challenges, donating prizes, and are excited about attending our party.
We hope you will join us in celebrating our 75th anniversary. It will be an epic event that we are so excited to share with our residents. Complete game and party details will be available at ccranews.com/challenge or facebook.com/CCRAchallenge.