{"id":6797,"date":"2014-05-28T16:47:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T20:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6797"},"modified":"2014-06-04T16:48:06","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T20:48:06","slug":"beverley-wood-named-auroras-citizen-of-the-year-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/beverley-wood-named-auroras-citizen-of-the-year-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Beverley Wood named Aurora’s Citizen of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beverley Wood lives by the motto it \u201camazing what one can learn when one opens up one\u2019s ears.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, the sound might have been deafening for Ms. Wood on Monday night when she was named Aurora\u2019s Citizen of the Year. <\/p>\n

Ms. Wood received her recognition from Mayor Geoffrey Dawe and Council on Monday night at the Community Recognition Awards, held at the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre.<\/p>\n

She succeeds Auroran founder and former councillor Ron Wallace to the post. <\/p>\n

A founder of Welcoming Arms, the outreach group bringing together Trinity Anglican Church, Aurora United Church, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, and Community Campus Church, Ms. Wood was celebrated for her tireless community service stretching back nearly 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can be described no better than as a woman who gets stuff done, no matter the time, the place, or the circumstance,\u201d said Mayor Dawe, introducing the new Citizen of the Year. \u201cFrom the multiple members of the community that nominated her, the words \u2018gracious\u2019, \u2018welcoming\u2019 and \u2018deserving\u2019 occurred frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a founding member of Welcoming Arms, our Citizen of the Year has diligently worked to bring together five different churches to support people in crisis \u2013 spiritually, socially and financially. Every Wednesday evening, you can find her at Trinity serving all members of our community through the Welcome Table program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Dawe also hailed her for her work outside Trinity, including her volunteer work for the PROBUS Club, Empty Bowls, which brings together area artists through the Pine Tree Potters Guild and local chefs in the popular annual fundraiser, as well as her work as a citizen-at-large.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thank you notes arrive from her promptly and she is always the first person to show her gratitude,\u201d Mayor Dawe concluded. \u201cTonight, however, we are here to thank her for her tremendous contributions and selfless dedication to the Town of Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a lengthy standing ovation, Ms. Wood made her way to the stage where she was greeted by the Mayor and each member of Council. Although she has received many awards in the past, including the Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, this one, she said, left her nearly speechless. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very touched, very overwhelmed, and very, very grateful,\u201d Ms. Wood told The Auroran after receiving hugs and gifts from several friends and family in the audience. \u201cAurora is a very special place for me, and it has always been. It is a place that has allowed me to grow and get to know the community. I think the community work that we do has invited me to really get to know who my neighbours are and we have some really wonderful neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Wood, an educator by trade, with a long background at Huron University College, first moved to Aurora in 1976. From there, she hit the ground running, becoming an active member of both her civic and church community. <\/p>\n

In 1978, for instance, she was one of 13 members of the Trinity community who sponsored a family of Vietnamese Boat People to come and plant their new roots in Aurora. That mission was a success and the family has flourished, meeting regularly with their sponsors to this day. <\/p>\n

She cites her parents as \u201cvery, very giving people\u201d who truly set the example. As an educator, those experiences were driven home continually and that line of work opened up many doors.<\/p>\n

As co-founder of Welcome Table, an initiative to provide not just food, but also a \u201clistening heart\u201d to people in distress, she has seen their initial founding serving just four people at their first dinner, expanding to an average of serving 120 people each Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an incredible gift for all of us, whether you are a volunteer or coming to dinner because we get to meet our community,\u201d says Ms. Wood.
\nWelcoming Table, in turn, lead to Welcoming Arms.<\/p>\n

At one time, each parish had their own outreach programs and benevolence funds but partly under Ms. Wood\u2019s initiative, they realised they were stronger together. In 2006, they started their mission at Our Lady of Grace, but when space became available at The Rectory behind Trinity, they quickly snapped it up and are there to this day. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe work very well together,\u201d said Ms. Wood. \u201cOur aim is to be assistance to those people who are in need in Aurora. It could be any kind of need and our biggest gift is we are able to listen. Our visits just today were amazing. We might not have all the answers, but we try and one thing I feel very strongly about is pooling our resources. I can\u2019t begin to tell you what I have learned by just opening up my heart and opening up my ears.\u201d<\/p>\n

One person who has seen Ms. Wood\u2019s work in action is Rev. Dawn Davis of Trinity. She said the recognition of Ms. Wood was \u201clong overdue\u201d, particularly for someone who \u201cnever looks for the limelight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in the little conversations I have with people where I can\u2019t count the times where they say, \u2018I was at a crossroads in my life when I thought I wasn\u2019t going to make it, and then I met Beverley Wood,\u2019\u201d said Rev. Davis of where Ms. Wood has made a difference.<\/p>\n

She recalled an Egyptian family who had recently arrived in Canada, stopping by Trinity on an Easter Morning not quite sure where to go or what to do. They crossed paths with Ms. Wood and she took them into her home, served them a full Easter Dinner, and helped them settle into their new life. And this story, she said, is one of many. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a profound faith and that gives her strength you can\u2019t measure. She calls you to be your best person. She doesn\u2019t make you dependent on her; she calls you to be strong and because she is there beside you, you know you can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Beverley Wood lives by the motto it \u201camazing what one can learn when one opens up one\u2019s ears.\u201d But, the sound might have been deafening for Ms. Wood on Monday night when she was named Aurora\u2019s Citizen of the Year. Ms. Wood received her recognition from Mayor Geoffrey Dawe and Council on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-29-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1LD","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 23:51:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}