Summer Street celebrates 50 years

New Glasgow’s Summer Street is celebrating 50 years of helping people with intellectual challenges build successful and happy lives this week.

Now boasting 2,000 donors, 30 staff and a wide range of programs to help its 200 clients, Summer Street has mushroomed from its humble beginnings in 1968.

Back then, people with intellectual disabilities had few chances in life after they graduated high school, but that year a small group of parents banded together to help nine young adults.

From there, Summer Street was born.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done. As an organization we’ve always been very fortunate to have the right volunteers at the board level at the right time,” executive director Bob Bennett told The News on Thursday.

Summer Street’s plan is to celebrate its 50th birthday with its usual annual events, including its awards ceremony, prom, golf scramble and the wine and cheese session.

The organization works with each client individually to help meet their needs, be it finding a job or learning new skills. Such needs may change daily.

Local businesses also back an employment program that sees Summer Street clients earning a collective yearly total of $700,000 in wages. Clients have also spent 14,500 hours per year volunteering in the community after receiving a leg-up from Summer Street.

Social enterprises that provide training, employment and more than 25 per cent of the organization’s annual revenue continue to thrive with community support, according to Summer Street.

The organization is kept on track by board members who grade Summer Street on 79 different points every year, such as if the executive director is successfully delivering the mission.

After 50 years, the organization still strives to keep the ethos of its original family values and says its success is a result of what can happen when people genuinely care for each other.

“It is a significant age for any organization,” said Bennett of Summer Street’s milestone.