If streets are the arteries that connect a neighbourhood, then the community centre is the neighbourhood’s heart.
The Renfrew Community Centre celebrated its 50th birthday this past Saturday with a seemingly endless amount of activities that included guided tours, a free Greek lunch, zumba and yoga demonstrations, a lion dance performance by the Shung Ying Kung Fu Club, a pet pageant, and — in the spirit of Sept. 11, 1964, when Canadian swimming world champion Mary Stewart opened the centre and pool — a free swim in the recently rebuilt pool.
“We’re not a flashy centre but we have a lot of heart,” said Renfrew Park Community Association president Hazel Hollingdale. “Renfrew is different in that all community centres are different from each other, they’re very much built from their community. For us, we have a lot of Chinese seniors programming, multi-lingual programming, food programming… We have an incredible grassroots community engagement at Renfrew.”
The spirit of the Renfrew Community Centre goes back even beyond the half century mark as the association, during information-gathering for Saturday’s popular history room where photographs and news clippings of the centre during the past decades were on display, learned that neighbourhood residents decided they wanted a meeting place 70 years ago. The owner of the corner store that once stood at Rupert and 26th got together with his friends every day after work and built a one-room centre with donated materials.
“Looking through the pictures, it has given us a real sense of continuity,” said Hollingdale, who grew up in the neighbourhood. “How that heart, which is the same of what we see today, is about amazing community members who are willing to give so much of their time and talent and skills.”
One of the items on display in the history room was a dusted-off crown once worn by winners of the Miss Renfrew pageant. While beauty contests don’t meet today’s politically correct standards, at least for Vancouver’s community centres, there are staffers at Renfrew who remember competing during the 1970s. And though past association president David Sexton never showed interest in beauty pageants, the once-coveted crown by the neighbourhood girls sparked inspiration for a different kind of contest — one for animals.
Sexton introduced big dogs, little dogs and rabbits to the crowd on the field behind the centre to vie for one of the many titles (baldest, grumpiest, best behaved, cuddliest, etc.) that ensured that, unlike a human pageant, almost everybody went home with a prize.
Proving Renfrew does indeed pride itself on acceptance and diversity, Sexton mused out loud about some of the contestants.
“We have many entries for the ‘top other’ category and here we have pet shrimp,” he said. “I wasn’t sure about pet shrimps being pets but it looks legitimate, we have a video!”
In the same category was Myrtle, a rescue rabbit that had 217 likes on the centre’s Facebook page. Owner Marina Hebert was cautiously optimistic.
“We’re up against a shrimp, a turtle, a gecko and another bunny,” she said while cradling Myrtle across her shoulder. “It’s going to be a tough race.”
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