37th Mayors' Dinner
Belonging, Inclusion & Community: Looking back on the 37th Mayors' Dinner
On April 11 2026, we welcomed over 800 guests to celebrate the 37th Annual Mayors’ Dinner on the theme of Places of Belonging – The Heart of Inclusion. Set in the warmly lit Bingemans’ Mashall Hall with colourful flowers, plants, and displays decorated throughout the space, we gathered to join in community and share stories.
Highlighted among us were three extraordinary individuals who encompass the values of the work they immerse themselves in daily: commitment to inclusion, resiliency during change, and offering a warm welcome to others.
Michele and Rob Way from Hockey Helps the Homeless have spent the last 13 years connecting hockey to community. Through their work, Hockey Helps the Homeless and their charity partners have supported countless individuals by not only funding emergency responses but investing in prevention, stability, dignity and pathways forward. Inclusion quickly grows through multiplication. As hockey becomes the hook, the community gathers behind to become the force. Inclusion becomes the engine.
As Michelle stated, “Hockey Helps the Homeless shows us [what] is possible when passion meets purpose, when sport meet service, and when inclusion meets opportunity.”
Oluseun Olayinka, Executive Director of Adventure4Change, has centered a core belief at the heart of her work: “Belonging is not a luxury, it is an infrastructure.” Having always seen herself creating spaces of safety and hope for children, youth and mothers, Oluseun has gone on to do exactly that in the Waterloo Region. Adventure4Change has filled a much-needed gap to welcome families into community spaces, providing after-school programs to support their youth, and helping families navigate complex systems so that they are not alone.
Oluseun shared how representation became a core component of building belonging: “When a newly arrived family can be welcomed and supported in Swahili, a language rarely spoke in the community served yet deeply familiar to them, it reaffirms that leadership is not elsewhere – it is already among them.”
The Working Centre also had a chance to demonstrate its commitment to inclusion and belonging through its Community Enterprise Tools, in particular the newly-reopened Queen Street Commons Café and furniture and homeware Worth a Second Look thrift store. Stories demonstrated the ways that community members engage in reprocity with each other – giving back to the community by welcoming them in spaces that they frequented regularly previously.
The annual Mayors’ Dinner continues to serve as a reminder of the power of togetherness. As belonging grows scarce in communities that face systemic challenges, we must approach the work arm in arm so as not to leave anyone behind. We continue to be grateful for the community’s support in The Working Centre’s projects, community members, and desire for change.
We look forward to gathering again next year, in April 2028, for the 38th Mayors’ Dinner.
