If you’re a Leasider on Facebook, I’ll bet you’re also a member of the Leaside Community Facebook page. Currently, there are 7,555 members – most of whom live in Leaside. Lots of traffic on this site – 2008 visitors last month alone. It’s the site that along with the requests for a plumber, or where to buy a rhubarb plant, has many, many different people offering masks for sale locally.
But how about some of the other FB sites in our area? If you haven’t checked them out, you may want to:
Bennington Heights Community Page
On a different scale is the Bennington Heights Community Page, with 222 members, and 20 posts in the past month. Cailey Heaps Estrin, its administrator, set up the site as “a great place to post information about community events, garage sales, babysitting needs, etc.” There aren’t commercial postings, unless it is a young person in the community starting out. It became the way to get the word out a few years ago when the now famous inflatable Christmas moose initiative was being launched in the neighbourhood.
Community Kindness 2020
Created in March, Community Kindness 2020 purposely does not have the word “Leaside” in its name. Becky Allen White, who set up the site, wanted the idea of spreading kindness in these difficult times to flow beyond our borders. She also set up the group as “public” so anyone can see who’s in the group and what they post. Postings run the gamut – how you can contribute to a new housing initiative for homeless people close to us on Broadway near Yonge – or a video showing parents and children taking out the trash in costume – or photos of artwork on a local fence.
Leaside Cares
Another newbie public site is Leaside Cares. Andre, Karen and Alianna Craig came up with the original site and name at the end of March. Just as it was launching, Cynda Fleming was intending to launch a similar site, after getting “training” from her sister, who runs a site in Barrie. They teamed up, and along with Wilmar Kortleever, are the admins. Their aim is to foster positivity and helpfulness. This includes a bit of fun, as shown by the opportunity to practise Monty Python Silly Walks if you are walking along Hanna near Millwood.
Leaside Community Forum
The oldest community group may be the Leaside Community Forum, established in April 2012 by John Carr and Ross Hair, with a simple mandate: “a community forum for Leaside with no sales, politics or bad manners.” This private group has 1,559 members and published 128 posts in the past month.
Leaside Chit Chat
Ann Brown’s Leaside Chit Chat is “for reminiscing and sharing stories about life now and in the past in the community of Leaside.” It has members from far afield – a few in Singapore and Australia, for example. Ann’s childhood home was on Randolph Road near Rolph Road School, and she still lives in Leaside. Lots of memories! One thread I was following centred on the fish and chips store that was on McRae near Airdrie. Amazing what people remembered, and how long the conversation kept going.
Leaside Moms
Leaside Moms was founded in 2015 by Dr. Emel Arat, a local orthodontist who was looking for a way to connect with other local moms and allow the sharing of information on child care support, housecleaning, summer camps…. She really enjoys the contacts she’s made and finds the feeling we’re not alone is “therapeutic.” With 949 members and 112 posts in the last month, she is very happy with the site’s success.
And of course, we can’t NOT mention our own Facebook page – Leaside Life. It isn’t a community page because we are listed as a Media/News Company – but we certainly invite you to like/follow/share whenever we appear on your Facebook feed.
