Bradford had a population of 7,000 when Neil and Ellen Rombough arrived from Toronto nearly 40 years ago.
Having both come from smaller communities, she from Bancroft and he from Simcoe, they set out in search of a similar place where they could raise their family, finding their nest in the South Simcoe town that had just one traffic light at the time.
Both Neil and Ellen jumped in feet first, engaging with a number of groups and organizations over the years, helping to weave together the threads of the town that more than 40,000 people now call home.
“We were looking for the small-town feeling,” Neil explains. “We ran away from Toronto."
“It was the best thing we ever did,” she adds. And he jumps in and with a chuckle says “other than getting married, of course.”
They moved onto a new street where everyone was new and raising their families, just like them. The three Rombough boys had plenty of other boys around their age to play with and there were plenty of teenagers, too, willing to babysit.
The Romboughs were presented the Town of Bradford's community builder award earlier this year for their dedication. But as they tell it, their many contributions — together and apart — benefited them just as it did other residents of the town.
“I had no interest in hockey,” Neil, a retired Bell Canada employee explains, “but I knew I had the responsibility.”
So while the boys played hockey, he turned his attention to another activity they had become involved in — scouting. The 20-odd years he volunteered with that organization, working in registration and annual events like apple day and swim ups when the Scouts moved up in the organization, far outstripped the time in which his kids were involved.
The point, he says, is that his kids were benefiting from the kindness of others who were helping keep hockey and other organizations going.
Ellen worked part time with Welcome Wagon, connecting with new residents and helping them find their way around. During the course of more than two decades, she visited something in the area of 7,000 new residents, frequently bumping into people during her day-to-day life in town.
When her oldest started school, she joined what was then the parent-teachers organization and remained involved right until the last child graduated from high school.
“That was my night out,” she says.
Neil was on the executive for the town’s new leisure centre when it was in the development phase, helping to raise money. After retiring in 2003, he sold advertising on the arena boards, sharing some of the profits with both the town and the Scouts organization.
So between the two, their local network was vast.
Thirty-eight years on, Ellen continues her involvement in the Catholic Women's League, the first 10 on the executive. She and Neil are both on the parish council at the Holy Martyrs of Japan church and Neil is on the finance committee for the second time. He’s also involved in the Knights of Columbus.
They’ve also been involved in the Probus club, a non-profit club for retirees and they recently retired from the Bradford fundraising group, Friends of the Library.
In more recent years, the Romboughs have expanded their community beyond the town. They have become involved in home exchanges, allowing them to travel and connect with other like-minded people in neighbourhoods around the world. And they always return, sometimes sharing their stories, and are often available to give a hand back at home, where Neil says there are so many opportunities to help out and become involved.
