Submitted by Lisa Rouleau
November 2021
We have lived in Sunnsyhill Housing Coop for almost 25 years. When we moved in, our daughter was not quite three years old. Our son was born in our living room with a midwife, and both kids grew up with their own cohort of coop kids. SHC is a fantastic community for families and I am so grateful. It’s also an amazing place to learn about community and neighbourliness and how to get along and flourish despite differences of age, attitude and lifestyle.
Over the years I’ve been part of Buildings, Social, Newsletter, Member Selection and Education committees, attended the majority of General meetings, countless social gatherings, potlucks, and firepit dinners (and scrabble tournaments), and parent meetings about kid issues. I helped plan, fundraise and build our playground and have done several stints on the Board including chairing through the flood and recovery. Richard has been just as involved, volunteering for grounds clean up, Member Selection, playground building, and more. He has also been on the Board more than once.
I think the hardest thing we’ve been through has been the last two years. It’s hard to hang on to a sense of community when everyone is of necessity isolated, when we can’t have meetings in person where we can more easily read each other’s body language and intervene when side conversations get carried away. We’ve struggled to connect, and we’ve suffered the consequences of our limited patience in the face of struggles. That said— I was so heartened by the wonderful AGM on Oct 30. It was full of enthusiasm, cooperation and quite a bit of patience, humour, and good will!
I hope that the SHC community takes to heart the ideas brought forward by this year’s Board to use an ad-hoc Member Concerns committee that is drafted when issues arise. Having the Board responsible for member concerns as well as everything else the Board has to do is, at the best of times, too much. In more difficult times like the past year, it is overwhelming. There have been meetings with the city about our lease, new people in the office after Andrea left (figuring out all the things we learned to depend on her to do), and member concerns. And I know that all of the Board members took on more than they bargained for in mediating neighbour issues this year. And it took a toll. We can do better.
This year has been one of much contemplation in my household. Richard retired last year, my job at the Curling Club ended sadly after 13 years, and we are again, after a lovely reconnection for a Covid year with our son, alone in the house. And we believe strongly in SHC as a family coop: as that awesome place to raise kids. All of these reasons, combined with how emotionally stressful this last year has been, have led to our decision that our time at SHC must come to an end.
I am grateful for the friendships our family members found - thank you to all the wonderful people we’ve come to know over the years. I’m grateful for the chance to feel so connected to a group of people because we know how brilliant it can be to work together to create a beautiful, green, supportive community determined to be more than just individuals who live near each other. I’m grateful for firepits and potlucks and Stampede breakfasts and neighbours who check in and offer meals and plants and delectable food and hands to lift couches and dig yards and look after pets. I’m grateful to have watched so many co-op kids from birth to adulthood, to have listened to so much talk and laughter and play, to see gardens flourish, to read books with neighbours over drinks and snacks, to feel and celebrate the best that Sunnyhill can be, and to know that with goodwill and patience, it can continue to be a strong community that works hard to support its members and be a great example in Sunnyside and Calgary for a more connected way of being a community.
So much I will miss here. I am excited for the new family that will join you and hope they feel the love more than the troubles. I wish that for all of you.