Vice-chair, former chair of Preserve Thornhill Woods Association receive Civic Hero Awards

Thestar.com
Sept. 26, 2022
Brian Capitao

Two residents behind a ratepayers’ association called Preserve Thornhill Woods have won the Civic Hero Award for Ward 4.

Jordan Kalpin and Rom Koubi were the recipients of the 2022 Ward 4 honour.

The awards started in 2005 as a way of recognizing achievement in civic engagement in Vaughan

For Kalpin, vice-chair of the association, getting involved with the community was a learning experience.

“Previous houses I've lived at over the years, if there was a community meeting about something important, I would show up from time to time, but I never really got involved. And part of the reason was I didn't know how you can get involved. I didn't know that you actually have sort of a civic responsibility to get involved,” said Kalpin.

It was a community issue regarding a development that got six to eight like-minded couples from the community together to form the association.

“We fundraised, we hired experts; we spent an awful lot of time engaging with the city to try to learn how the process works and how was the best way to engage with the city. And it's not a simple thing,” Kalpin told the Vaughan Citizen.

This sentiment was echoed by Koubi, the former chair, who created the association because he wanted to maintain the neighborhood’s look and feel and build upon it.

“It was a beautiful neighbourhood. We wanted to enhance on that. And we put together the association basically to look after the well-being of the residents of it, as well as improving our common spaces,” said Koubi.

For Koubi, the award is about maintaining a sense of courage in dealing with the unknown.

“I think the biggest part of this award is the recognition. Where a citizen has basically stood up. Doesn't matter the fear. Doesn't matter the unknown. Doesn't matter the lack of knowledge. And put the entire community behind them and push their agenda with the city,” Koubi told the Vaughan Citizen.

For both recipients, there was a sense of pride in getting people to be actively engaged. So much so, that it caught the attention of the mayor.

“We did such a good job engaging the community, engaging the city that other ratepayers' organizations come to us now for advice,” said Kalpin. “And I think where it all kind of came home was during the awards ceremony, when the mayor, Maurizio Bevilacqua, made a short speech and he said, ‘You guys basically established a standard for how all ratepayers’ associations should operate in the city of Vaughan’,” he continued.

According to Koubi, ward councillors love to see citizens engaged and actually respond to direct communication. Residents should just have a plan and be prepared with specifics.

“Have people go and engage and actually express their opinion. It's very important,” said Koubi, stressing the importance of civic engagement.

“My biggest win is that I've seen about 5,000 people attend a city meeting and I've generated so much interest to have all of these people come and express their opinion. That was the biggest win. I got a whole community behind me that actually cares about where they live, that actually wants to influence what could be the next direction of the neighbourhood,” said Koubi.