By Kathy Rowe
Meet Joan and Keith McRoberts. They moved to the Centennial community from Montreal in 1971.
“That was before the Lawrence Avenue bridge was built,” Keith exclaimed. And so began our conversation about the many changes within the subdivision and the community over the past 40 plus years.
Joan and Keith have enjoyed living in the Centennial community and they raised their four children here. They both share a fondness for the neighbourhood and referred to it as very safe and friendly.
Before retiring, Keith worked as a chartered professional accountant for Deloitte, which is one of the largest financial service firms in the country. Joan had the luxury of being a stay-at-home mother. They knew about the CCRA and they attended a few of the annual general meetings when neighbourhood issues would arise.
“The CCRA has always done such a great job representing the community over the years,” Keith said. “In the past we would attend a meeting whenever developers were threatening to build big buildings in the area. More recently we were very impressed with the way the CCRA handled the Highland Creek waste treatment issues.”
In 1986, Joan began delivering the CCRA Newsletter along the Cherryhill Avenue route. Ten years later Keith retired from his job and began driving nine different bundles to a number of homes in the same subdivision. They have been loyal volunteers ever since and we thank them for that!
“It’s the least we can do and we will do it for as long as we can,” said Joan. “We always keep a newspaper on hand because we often refer to the advertisements when we are looking for services,” added Keith. Upon leaving, I thanked them for their time and commitment to the CCRA. Keith expressed his thanks to the CCRA and added “keep up the good work that you do.” Valuable volunteers indeed.