Today as we celebrated our first anniversary here at Regina Speech Centre, it felt truly bittersweet. This weekend of all weekends, was to be a celebration for us of how family and community came together to help us achieve our dream. Instead, we have spent this weekend feeling truly shaken to the core by the tragedy that occurred in Humboldt on Friday. Empowering families and connecting communities is our motto, and really explains why we opened our doors. We were driven by the dream of providing a welcoming space for families where they could find the supports and community they required during their time of need. The idea of our community has weighed heavily on us this weekend while we all grieve. Nichole and I feel so personally touched by the tragedy both through the loss of a friend, and through our past and continued involvement in small town hockey. So while we wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone from the bottom of our hearts, for helping us make it through our first year, we also want to take a moment and reflect on the true strength of Saskatchewan; connected communities.
Family and community were how this centre came to be: from the support and encouragement of our own families who told us we could do this, to the friends and community members who helped us build and open our doors. One of the true strengths of Saskatchewan is how we support each other and we have felt this through every moment of our journey this year. We have had friends, family, and other businesses: watch our kids while we worked, tell us not to quit, chip in with their ideas, provide amazing advice and add their creative strengths to our business. We have dedicated and talented therapists and educators who have joined our centre to help us grow and reach more families in Regina and surrounding areas. This love and support has helped us reach our first year milestone and will help us continue to grow in the future. We are truly grateful.
So, while we continue to be, incredibly saddened by what happened this weekend; it is also a reminder of why we started this journey in the first place, because families are the root of all communities. This weekend we watched the hockey community in Humboldt shaken by a tragedy, but know, from personal experience how resilient families can be when they surround each other with support and love. They will recover, because that’s what our communities do best. This is what strikes me as both sad and hopeful this weekend in our province. It gives me hope that we will continue to get a chance to do what we love and do best, for many years to come, which is to empower families and connect communities. Supporting our clients is our passion and this weekend is a sad, but powerful reminder to keep on achieving our dreams.
We are holding the community of Humboldt and all the families affected by the tragedy in our thoughts and prayers here at Regina Speech Centre.