A Legacy of Giving, Three Generations Strong
For Cyndy Dearden, giving back was never a question of if, but how. She grew up in a family where philanthropy was simply a way of life, a value instilled by both of her grandfathers and carried forward by her parents and their siblings. Her father helped establish the Cambridge Community Foundation, now the Waterloo Regional Community Foundation, and her uncle later served as the Board Chair. By her early teenage years, Cyndy was already volunteering alongside her father at United Way bingo nights, learning firsthand what generosity could do for the people around her.
Cyndy came to Guelph in 1983 to attend university and quickly made it her home. Over the next three decades, she built a fifteen-year career at the University of Guelph before contributing her talents to the Waterloo Region Children’s Museum, the Huntington Society of Canada, and Homewood Research Institute. Along the way, she raised her two daughters and developed a deep connection to the community, one that ultimately inspired the creation of the Moffat Forsyth Family Fund.
Cyndy’s involvement with the Guelph Community Foundation began as a volunteer for six years in a variety of roles, where she saw firsthand what funding could do for people in Guelph, before later joining the Board of Directors. That experience, combined with a lifelong belief in pooling resources to strengthen community, led her to start her own fund. She named it the Moffat Forsyth Family Fund, honouring both her daughters. “Community was very good to us,” Cyndy says, “and as a family, we wanted to give back.”
The fund directs its support to Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario Wellington-Guelph, formerly known as The Grove, an organization that is deeply personal to Cyndy. From being a volunteer at the Rotary Club to starting The Grove and becoming its first Executive Director, Cyndy helped bring the Youth Wellness Hub model to Guelph and Wellington County, connecting young people with counselling, tutoring, and wraparound support, before challenges have a chance to grow. “It really is about intervention and prevention combined with community support ,” she says, “to ensure we protect our youth and help them flourish and thrive.”
Each year, the fund provides a monetary award through The Grove, recognizing youth who demonstrate leadership, kindness, and a drive to make their community better. When Cyndy retired, the organization named the award in her honour, and she made sure it carried real meaning behind the name. “I really hope it inspires them,” she says, “to achieve great things far beyond what I’ve achieved.” The first recipient, a young woman from Palmerston, came to The Grove during a difficult chapter in her life and grew into someone who welcomed and supported others walking the same path, exactly the kind of transformation the fund was built to celebrate.
Today, the Moffat Forsyth Family Fund brings together Cyndy’s daughters and extended family in a shared commitment to strengthening their community, a celebration of her family’s long history of giving and an investment in the next generation of community leaders. Cyndy believes her eldest daughter will carry the fund forward in time, continuing a legacy that now spans three generations. Her advice to anyone unsure about starting a fund of their own is simple: start small. “Any amount of money that you dedicate will make a difference,” she says. “It grows quite rapidly without you really realizing it, if you contribute a little bit every year.” Cyndy’s story is a reminder that legacy is not something we leave behind, but something we build together, for the people who come after us.