The Rotary Club of Brantford has had a significant and ongoing impact on what is today known as Lansdowne Children’s Centre.
Brantford – On September 20, 2024, history was celebrated with a luncheon at Lansdowne Children's Centre, where a number of Rotary Club of Brantford members gathered to share a meal and learn more about the Centre and what it does.
Lansdowne Executive Director Rita-Marie Hadley – who herself has been a Rotary member since early 2009 – noted,
“There’s a strong, strong connection between Rotarians and the governance here at Lansdowne in helping us to get where we are.”
She lauded the club’s historic work in helping to eradicate polio, noting that if not for that, there would likely be even more people in need of Lansdowne’ s services, because of the paralysis the disease can cause.
Hadley told the Rotarians that Lansdowne supports over 3,600 unique children annually, and “Our wait list is almost as large … which is why we have a great deal of drive around needing to be in a new space. It’s not only a new space that will make a difference, but if it’s purpose-built space, it allows us to be able to do group programming and some other evidence-based ways of serving kids and taking them off wait lists sooner.”
In January 2024, the provincial government announced that it was beginning planning work to build a new, modern facility for Lansdowne.
Hadley noted that the last major build at Lansdowne was 30 years ago, in 1994.
“Then, as now, we’re asking the community to please support us; lend our kids a hand,” she said.
As part of the presentation, the audience viewed a short video detailing more of the history of Lansdowne.
After the luncheon, Hadley gave a tour of the facility to the club president Eric Sterne and other members of the executive.
Besides the general shared history the Rotary Club has with Lansdowne, Hadley noted that Sterne’s family has a personal connection to the centre, too, in that his father, Rick Sterne, had previously served as a first vice president for Lansdowne, and his grandfather cut the ribbon for the Crippled Children/Cerebral Palsy Centre at the Brantford General Hospital in 1960, 14 years before Lansdowne Children’s Centre was incorporated.
“I’m struck by all of that,” Hadley said.
"Their [Rotary] motto of ‘Service above self,’ I think, is really a good way for many of us to live our lives."
She shared that when she had first come to her role at Lansdowne, she’d been invited by a past board chair of Lansdowne to join the local Rotary Club, and knew immediately “It was a no-brainer that that was a good place to put my volunteer efforts … Their motto of ‘Service above self,’ I think, is really a good way for many of us to live our lives. And I'm grateful that the efforts of Rotary are directed towards our kids in this community.”
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