Bob, front centre, surrounded by well wishers

Shadow Lake’s dining hall was a very busy place during the late afternoon and early evening of  September 27^th. Numerous current and former staff from Community Living Toronto gathered to wish Bob Ferguson well as he retired from the association after 37 years of service.

Presentations from Brad Saunders, Sue Lynch, Gary Oulette, and Ann-Marie Binnetti took us on a journey of remembrances of Bob’s years with Community Living Toronto. Bob started his career at Shadow Lake Camp as a counselor in May 1980. He went on to full time work in residential services and later at the Adult Development Program in North York Region where he attained a Manager position. In this position Bob took the lead for developing the Youth 2 Work program. This program provides individuals in transition from High School to post graduation opportunities for supported work experiences at various employment enterprises.

In 2004, Bob was promoted to Service Development Manager for the region. During his time in this position, Bob worked tirelessly to initiate and develop community partnerships through his connections with the North York Chamber of Commerce and the Toronto Board of Trade.

Bob provided numerous presentations on transitional youth and to newcomer organizations on accessing services and supports.

His work with settlement communities through OCASI, Cultural Link, and the United Way provided the framework for the association to partner in the development of a community hub. Bob’s vision was to make services and supports more accessible to families new to Canada. He also wanted the association to have more of a presence within the city through participation in community hubs. Bob’s vision and work lead to Community Living Toronto being an anchor agency at the Victoria Park Hub, which opened in 2010.

Bob co-chaired the Bridging Diversity committee for the association. His leadership on this initiative positioned the association to build a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through the Bridging Diversity work, the association has developed policies that reflect respect for all people’s rights.

For the last two years, Bob has been a project manager with Developmental Services Toronto (DSTO). The DSTO is a group of over 30 Toronto agencies funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services that work collaboratively to deliver   services and supports to people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Throughout Bob’s career, he maintained a connection to Shadow Lake. He created an alumnus for camp staff and has kept in close contact with many staff that worked at the camp with him during the early 1980’s. Bob has organized many staff reunions and has gotten his family involved with the camp on a number of different levels. When Bob is at the camp he is more than willing to provide guests with a tour of the property and regale them with his knowledge of the history of Shadow Lake and how Community Living Toronto came to own the property.

Bob was instrumental in providing some of the historical pictures that you will find on the camp website. In fact, Bob has a vast collection of pictures and video of staff and events from his 37 years of service. His first project in retirement is to save this collection for the association’s archives. It was Bob’s wish to hold his retirement celebration at Shadow Lake and it was a very fitting setting. By the peaceful lake, Bob expressed his thanks to his many colleagues and promised to keep in touch.

Bob with his classic grin poses while cutting his cake

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