WIBCA: 25 years on

BY MAYA JOHNSON

The West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) celebrated its 25th anniversary with a formal banquet attended by nearly 300 guests at the Holiday Inn Pointe Claire on Saturday evening.

The organization’s co-founders, Norma Husbands and Margaret Jolly, were each presented with a plaque recognizing their efforts in shaping WIBCA over the years.

Husbands and Jolly said they were drawn together in the spring of 1982, when their teenaged children were looking for a place to hang out after school without being harassed by authorities.

“They didn’t want to be hanging out at street corners or at shopping malls,” said Jolly, who is white and has a biracial daughter. “They wanted somewhere to go.”

With support from both local community workers and politicians, the women secured

gym space at Lakeside Heights elementary school in Pointe Claire, where their children could play basketball once a week. Out of those weekly basketball games, WIBCA was born.

At the banquet, past and present members, along with dignitaries and politicians reflected on WIBCA’s achievements with several speeches, a slideshow documentary and award presentations. WIBCA chairperson Tomacuita James announced that a scholarship recognizing academic achievement will be given annually in the name of Husbands’ son, Kenneth, who died suddenly at the age of 44 following an epileptic seizure.

“He worked very hard in the organization with the youth and to give him that honour, it was very touching,” said Husbands.

This year’s award was presented to 16-year-old Alyssa Archer-Cooper, an honour student in the social science program at John Abbott College who has volunteered as a Counsellor in Training at WIBCA’s summer day camp.

WIBCA board members agree it’s challenging to draw young people like Archer-Cooper to the organization these days, with fewer and fewer youth willing to give back to the community.

“We need new blood,” James said. “That’s my goal for the immediate future — to increase our membership.”

Funding is also a continuous struggle for the organization, and it can’t count on government handouts to survive, James added.

“The government’s pot is only so big, and when you have so many groups going for the same pot, you only get so much,” James said.

In spite of its limited funding, WIBCA has transitioned from renting space at various venues to owning a building on 4th Avenue in Roxboro. Since they first moved in more than a decade ago in 1995, volunteers have made the building home to a range of programs, including summer day camp, Saturday morning tutorials, social activities for seniors, and workshops during Black History Month in February. But the founding members have even more ambitious plans for the future — a newer, bigger building with a gym.

“We need a community centre in order to encourage youth to be involved,” said Husbands, expressing that it can only happen with the help of dedicated parents and volunteers.