Category Archives: Brantford news

Brantford news, Scholarship and Donating

Congratulations to Susan Zuidema!

Karen Innes presents Susan Zuidema with her award.

The successful candidate for the 2023 Award B is Susan Zuidema. Susan has worked for several years in Brantford with people who are struggling with poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental health. She has seen first hand their trauma and feelings of hopelessness. A genuine advocate for the disenfranchised, Susan has been instrumental in mobilizing food programs, increasing temporary shelter beds, and establishing Charlie’s Place for young men and also housing for young mothers in need of mentorship. As the former executive director of “Why Not” mission, Susan helped many at risk young people. Susan believes that a trusted psychotherapist is a crucial component of healing and hope. She has enrolled in the M. of Div. clinical counseling three year program at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto.

Brantford news, Meetings

Our Speaker for the November 22 General Meeting

The Honourable Justice Gethin Edward was born and raised in Brantford, and is a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River.
He attended Pauline Johnson Collegiate in Brantford, the University of Waterloo, and received his law degree through the
University of Western Ontario. Justice Edward began his law career with the highly respected firm of Howard Staats, where he
practiced law for 14 years, after which he was appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice. Justice Edward has taken on complex
projects such as the founding of the Indigenous Persons Court of Brantford, sometimes called the Gladue Court. He changed
how medicine was practiced in Ontario in his 2014 ruling that Aboriginal people have the right to use traditional medicines and
health practices for themselves and their families, a controversial decision at that time. In his personal life, Justice Edward has
been married to Vicki for 34 “wonderful years” and has two children. Justice Edward is generous with his time, often speaking
to local community groups, and we look forward to his talk to CFUW.

Brantford news, Interest Groups

Book group

Four of us were able to attend the book discussion group over lunch yesterday,  but we were able to talk about a dozen or so books. Marian brought her copy of Significant Lives, which was self-published by our club a number of years ago.  She was on the committee to produce it and told us many interesting anecdotes.

Leslie took notes with her beautiful script:

Brantford news, Interest Groups

Dining out group

Our Dining out group went to Pinecroft yesterday…. A quintessential autumn delight. The drive on the backroads included fields of pumpkins and forests in dazzling reds, oranges and golds. Pinecroft is a cluster of log cabins nestled in the woods, complete with pottery studio, gift shop and restaurant. The food was sourced locally and beautifully prepared. Homemade soups, grilled cheese and BLTs, top notch Caesar salad (possibly my new gold standard!), and so much more. I think we were high on autumn because the laughter and joy at the table was ….delicious!

Brantford news, Meetings

September speaker

Your new Program Committee lost no time in searching for interesting and engaging speakers for our 2023/2024 monthly meetings. Therefore, we are happy to announce that in September we will welcome Glenna Young and Akela, her service dog to speak to us. She will outline how service dogs are trained, the various roles they can play, how we, as the public, should behave and interact with service dogs.

Akela is a unique service dog in that he and Glenna help train other service dogs. Akela is a German Shepherd and very well behaved. However, should anyone be allergic to dogs, or have any fear or discomfort around a dog we are happy to be able to offer the Zoom option for our meeting.