Finding a sense of belonging in a bustling, burgeoning city can be an overwhelming task.
But as the city unites on Monday to join the nationwide festivities celebrating Canada's birth, on a smaller, day-to-day level, Richmondites are finding various ways to bond through their community centres and community gardens.
"We refer to it as a family here," said Richard Scott, on the board of West Richmond Community Centre. "It's really important for these people. There's a group of people who are unaware of the community centre and we're trying to reach out and connect with them as well."
Scott has been at the centre for the past 10 years. He joined the board as a way to give back and connect with more people in the city he's lived in since 1977.
He's seen people use the centre to get their children involved in the various programs offered. However, as children get older, parents want to keep frequenting the centre and begin to use the facilities for themselves.
"It's not something people do for a year or two, it's something they do for many, many years," said Scott.
Even though the building acts as a tangible and convenient meeting spot, Scott suspects bonds formed there transcend the four walls.
"These people have made a real, personal connection with others," said Scott. "I think if an instructor of a class left, or if certain friends left, some people might reconsider the place."
For the most part, community centres are walls built up to foster that very sense of community. Gardens, although built without walls, primarily serve different purposes such as food security awareness. Patrons attend to their own separate lots.
Still, friendships form as people share the same interests in the land and urban agriculture.
"They don't have these walls that separate actual neighbours," said Colin Dring, executive director of the Richmond Food Security Society. "So it's quite open and people really become friends. Those moments of social connection are important to people."
What starts out as a knowledge exchange between neighbouring plots turns into plant and water sharing, and potlucks at the gardens.
Sometimes people call up friends to go and hang out, but encounters are mostly serendipitous, according to Dring.
And the demand for the gardens has been huge.
"We have about 300 in Richmond and there's a waitlist of over 100," he said. "People are looking for ways to access the land and be more connected to it and each other."
Using land as a common ground is something Thompson Community Centre cultivates through its park space.
"With higher density comes less backyard space," said Angela Lim, Thompson Community Centre Association president. "So people don't really have that opportunity to sit out in their backyards and see their neighbours that way. So we try to bring people to the park."
So far it's working as Lim has seen Richmondites of all shapes and sizes using the park as a communal gathering place.
The centre has been proactive in creating connections and has a questionnaire at the front desk for patrons to answer questions like "What makes you feel connected to the Thompson Community?"
"We want to be able to improve our facilities as well and connect to those who might feel more isolated," said Lim who has frequented the centre for the past 23 years.
"We've always taken a more proactive approach to really get people out here and connected."
