Guildford Community Partners Society (GCPS) is closing down after working to improve the Guildford community for more than two decades.
Members of the closing board would like to thank the dedicated volunteers who have helped over the years, including founder John Dodd, Rob Terris, David Knight, Peter Maarsman and Jean Munday.
The society was formed in 1994 when Surrey Social Futures approached residents about ways to improve their community.
Dodd, who passed away in 2012, took the reins, and with the results of a public forum he organized in 1996, submitted a proposal to Surrey Parks, Recreation and Culture to build the Guildford Recreation Centre.
Among the GCPS’s accomplishments:
• In 1999, the group lobbied the city to develop a track at North Surrey Secondary School.
• It raised $240,000 towards furnishings and equipment for the Guildford Recreation Centre and it’s youth programs.
• In 2003, it donated $5,000 to the Guildford Public Library for a computer lab.
• It made a successful case to the city to not close down Holly Pool.
• The GCPS donated $6,500 to the Surrey Canadian Baseball Association towards a batting cage at Lionel Courchene Park.
• In 2005, in donated $2,700 to the RCMP for the Police Youth Academy Program.
• It hosted all-candidates meetings at the Guildford Recreation Centre.
• It donated $15,000 to the Nights Alive program for youth.
In 2002 and later, President Betty McClurg and her successor President Rob Terris worked on a plan to build an Olympic-sized pool at the Guildford Recreation Centre. Although the facility wasn’t as big as they wanted, the community did get its pool this year.