The Doon School of Fine Arts was opened in 1948 at the former home of Homer and Pheobe Watson by Ross and Bess Hamilton, who purchased the property in 1947. An agreement was struck between with the University of Waterloo in 1963 resulting in fine arts instruction at both schools. The Doon School of Fine Arts operated until 1966 when it was closed due to lack of funding.

Dominion Woollens and Worsteds Ltd. came into Hespeler in 1928 when the company purchased the R. Forbes Company Ltd. mill at what is now Queen St. West in Cambridge. The company would operate in Hespeler until 1959 when it went into receivership and was purchased by Silknit. As the largest woollens and worsteds mill in the British colonies at the time, the factory played a large role in the history of Hespeler, at one time employing almost one third of all citizens of the village.

During and immediately after WWII the mill employed a large number of women employees from both the Hespeler area as well as those who were brought in to work from Newfoundland and Northern Ontario. These women lived in boarding houses or dormitories provided by the mill and many of them stayed in Hespeler after the war, forever changing the village.

Production ceased permanently at the mill in 1984 and one third of it was destroyed shortly afterward in a fire. Today the portion of the mill that still stands is rented by retail stores. In 1986 Kenneth McLaughlin and three graduate students began to conduct oral history interviews with workers from the mill who were still living in the region, including those women who came from Newfoundland and Northern Ontario.

Dominion Rubber Systems was formed as an offshoot of the Dominion Rubber Company in order to separate sales and distribution from manufacturing. In 1926, all of the divisions of the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Company (of which the Dominion Rubber Company was the local division) were renamed Dominion Rubber Company.

The Dominion Life Assurance Company was established in 1889. In 1912 Dominion Life moved to their new head office at 14 Erb Street west, a building formerly owned by the Ontario Mutual Life Assurance Company. In 1956 the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company of Fort Wayne acquired controlling shares, but continued to operate the company under its incorporated name. The company was bought by Manulife in 1985.

Denny and the Dinos was made up of graduate students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at the University of Waterloo.

Dare Foods Limited is a family-owned business based in Kitchener, Ontario. It manufactures cookies, crackers, candies and fine breads at its seven plants in Ontario, Quebec and South Carolina. Dare candies are made in Toronto and Milton, Ontario.

In 1889, Charles H. Doerr opened a grocery store on the corner of Breithaupt and Gzowski (now Weber) Streets in Berlin (now Kitchener, Ontario) that by 1892 had become a biscuit-manufacturing operation. In 1919 a larger bakery was built in Kitchener to replace the original plant and at the same time a line of candies was added. In 1942 the Kitchener plant was destroyed by a fire and in 1943 a smaller wartime replacement was constructed on a former flying field on the outskirts of Kitchener. A new office building was constructed in Kitchener in 1952. In 2003 a new Kitchener office building was constructed to preserve and highlight the original 1952 yellow-brick structure.

The company now known as Dare Foods Limited was originally known as the C.H. Doerr Co. When Charles H. Doerr died in 1941 his grandson, Carl M. Doerr, became President of the company and began an expansion program that introduced Dare products in more than 40 countries. In 1945 the company and family name was changed from “Doerr” to “Dare” creating The Dare Company, Limited, later renamed Dare Foods Limited. With the help of his sons Bryan and Graham, Carl Dare continued to guide Dare Foods Ltd. until 2002. In Nov. 2002 Fred Jacques was appointed as President, the first non-family member to head the company in 111 years. Bryan and Graham Dare remain co-chairmen of the company’s Board of Directors.

The business history of Dare Foods is complex: it has formed, acquired, merged and dissolved other companies and its own divisions over the years. One of Carl M. Doerr’s first expansion acquisitions was The Howe Candy Company in Hamilton, Ontario. Other acquisitions include Saratoga Products, St. Jacobs Canning Company, Mother Dell’s Bakeries, Dairy Maid Chocolates, Bremner Biscuit Co., Saputo/Culinar CFS.

In 1960 a sales office was opened in Montreal, establishing Les Aliments Dare Limitée, Dare’s selling and distributing organization in the Province of Quebec. The Western Division was established in 1962 with the opening of a bakery and sales office in North Surrey, Vancouver, B.C., serving British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

In 1954 The Dare Company, Limited was the first Canadian cookie company to use the new recloseable tin tie packages that had been used successfully in the coffee industry and which have become standard packaging in the cookie industry in Canada.

The Concordia Club originated as the Concordia Male Choir in October, 1873 when Berlin (now Kitchener) had a population of approximately 3,000 people, the majority of whom were of German origin.

The choir quickly became famous for its excellent performances and played a central role in organizing the grand "Sangerfests" which were very popular in this region from the 1870's until the outbreak of WWI.

With the onset of World War I, the activities of Concordia had to be discontinued. However, in 1924 with the impetus provided by a large number of German immigrants to Kitchener, the club was reorganized, and on Feb. 10, 1925 officially incorporated as the "German Club, Kitchener, Ont." The club grew rapidly and branched out to embrace a much wider remit of activities and goals.

On Dec. 15, 1930 a charter in the name of "Concordia Club" was obtained. WWII interrupted operations again but the club was reestablished by its members in 1948, and grew quickly as a result of renewed high levels of German immigration. The club offered an ever increasing range of cultural activities through its growing number of sub-groups.

In 1954 the club purchased premises for the first time at Matlock Gardens at 429 Ottawa St. South in Kitchener, and in 1965 the Concordia Farm was purchased at Baden with a view to providing leisure and recreational facilities for club members. On the night of Nov. 17, 1971 a major fire destroyed most of the club premises. Plans to rebuild were quickly put in place. The new club premises were officially opened by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the same location on Oct. 6, 1972. In 1973 the club celebrated its 100th birthday, and marked this occasion by a week-long itinerary of events including two gala dinner-dances.

Today the Concordia Club is the largest of the German-Canadian Clubs in Kitchener. It strives to preserve German language, customs, and traditions, and serves as a place where old and new Canadians of German descent can meet. Choral music still forms a very important part of Concordia's year-round activities, but the club also offers its members a wide range of other cultural as well as sporting and social activities through its many other subgroups.

The Concordia Club has played a valuable role in promoting the preservation of the German language through its founding of the German Language School Concordia in 1970, and its continued support of the school after it was integrated into the Waterloo County public school system in 1973. The German literary competition introduced by Concordia in 1979, and its donation of scholarships to students of German language in local universities have also played an important role here.

The club also places priority on caring for its aged members, and the club was behind the decision to secure land for a seniors residence for the German-Canadian community in 1983. As a result of the efforts of Concordia the Senioren Haus Concordia Inc. was founded as a separate non-profit corporation with a board of directors comprising representatives from all German clubs in Kitchener. In 1984 the Senioren Haus Concordia was officially opened, and in 1990 the building of a second seniors' residence, Villa Concordia, was completed.

The Concordia Club can also be given credit for introducing a new Oktoberfest concept to the Kitchener-Waterloo area in 1967 when the club proposed that Oktoberfest take the form of a public celebration to be held over several days. Oktoberfest has been celebrated in this fashion ever since. Significantly the Concordia Club has always made donations to charitable organizations from Oktoberfest profits.

Founded by Charles Andrew Ahrens circa 1881 as Charles A. Ahrens & Sons on Queen Street in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario. In 1886 the factory was moved to a larger location on Queen Street, near King Street, Berlin and employed over 35 workers. Both machine or hand sewed slippers in a variety of materials were manufactured.

The Central Ontario Art Association (COAA) is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1954 as the Five Counties Art Association with the goal of bringing together artists and existing artist groups in Halton, Peel, Dufferin, Wellington, and Waterloo counties in order to provide greater opportunities in art instruction, encourage art appreciation, pool area efforts and resources, develop leadership in visual art, and foster inter-group cooperation and participation.

In the early 1950s, Lloyd Minshall, District Representative of the Community Programs Branch of the Ontario Department of Education, and Gordon Couling, art professor at the Macdonald Institute of the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, determined that it would be beneficial to foster cooperation among artists in the region. In 1954 they organized a series of meetings for art instructors that led to the formation of the Five Counties Art Association Teachers’ Council, which organized an exhibition and several sketching trips that year. In 1957, the organization became an open members’ association, with the teachers’ council responsible for instruction and learning opportunities and the jurying of exhibitions, and the association responsible for organizing activities and exhibitions. In 1964, the association changed its name to Central Ontario Art Association to incorporate an expanding membership, and in 1967, the executives of the teachers’ council and the association were merged to become one entity.

The COAA is administered by an executive consisting of a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, past president, and committee chairs. Committees in existence over the association’s history include: Membership, Program (or Workshops), Exhibition, Nominating, and Bulletin/Newsletter. In the early years, district representatives (or advisory directors) were also involved in administration. The association was originally sponsored by the Ontario Department of Education, Community Programs Branch, and also received grants and assistance at various times from the Art Institute of Ontario and the Ontario Council for the Arts.

The main activities of the COAA have remained consistent over the years. These activities, through which the COAA accomplishes its goals, include workshops and sketching trips, annual juried and members’ exhibitions, and the publication of a newsletter. An annual weekend of workshops, as well as the annual general meeting, is held with the COAA’s sister association, the East Central Ontario Art Association, at the Geneva Park YMCA Conference Centre on Lake Couchiching. Today, the COAA encompasses over 300 artist networks.

The Carold Institute for the Advancement of Citizenship in Social Change was founded by Clare Clark (Clara Evelyn Clark) in 1989. Over its history, the Institute focused its efforts on creating spaces for conversations that advanced democratic participation in Canada; supporting leaders in the voluntary sector to reflect on, refine and share their practices and knowledge; and fostering innovative partnerships with like-minded organizations and individuals. Through a series of events and programs, awards and fellowships, and sponsoring of other institutions' programs, the Institute promoted adult education and democratic participation in Canada.

Throughout the years, the Carold Institute established several fellowships and awards. In 2007, the Alan Thomas Fellowship (in honour of Dr. Alan Miller Thomas (II), former president of the Carold Institute) was created with the intention of providing leaders at transition points in their careers with year-long sabbaticals to pursue research of importance to the sector. The Institute also established the Winifred Hewetson Awards in Community and World Service to assist undergraduate students of the Faculty of Arts or Environment at the University of Waterloo who participate in a work term or field placement with not-for-profit organizations providing social services locally, nationally or abroad with little or no remuneration.

In 2016, the Carold Institute partnered with the Community Knowledge Exchange (CKX).

The Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain began in 1981 and for most of the 1980's was Canada’s largest environmental group. It played a central role in raising awareness of the acid rain issue, through advocacy, educational programmes and by lobbying the governments of both Canada and the United States for the passage of legislation resticting acid rain-causing emissions. With the passage of amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1990 the Coalition’s mandate was completed and the group disbanded. During the decade of its existence the Coalition was headed by Michael Perley and Adele Hurley, its executive co-ordinators and chief lobbyists. Starting in 1981 with 12 member groups representing tourism, naturalist and sportsmen’s associations, the CCAR maintained offices in both Toronto and Washington. Registered as a charitable organization in Canada, the CCAR was registered as a lobby group in the United States, and was the first-ever Canadian lobby group to be so registered in Washington. By 1991 the Coalition had grown to 58 member groups, representing over 2 million Canadians.
CCAR worked closely with the Canadian Acid Precipitation Foundation, a registered charitable organization created to carry out a variety of educational projects on the acid rain issue, and to support the educational work of the Coalition. The Foundation’s activities included extensive direct mail campaigns asking for private donations, the sale of merchandise, charitable dinners featuring such prominent speakers as Senator Edward Kennedy and Alan Gotleib (former Canadian ambassador to the United States), and the AirWatch monitoring project.

The Canadian Air Force (CAF) was established in 1920 as the successor to a short-lived two-squadron Canadian Air Force that was formed during the First World War in Europe. In 1923, the CAF became responsible for all flying operations in Canada, including civil aviation. In 1924, the Canadian Air Force, was granted the royal title, becoming the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is the department within the Government of Canada with responsibility for pensions, benefits and services for war veterans, retired and still-serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), their families, as well as some civilians.

Budds Department Store was a family-owned business that first opened in Kitchener, Ontario in 1926. Four brothers from Saint John, New Brunswick, Lou, Jack, Mort, and Nat Budd purchased the Davis Economical Store at 227 King St. W. in Downtown Kitchener, reopening the doors shortly after as Budds Department Store. In 1931 the brothers opened a second location in Guelph. In 1933 the Kitchener store moved to a larger location to accommodate their growing business, and in 1937 a third location opened in Simcoe, turning their family business into a chain. Nat Budd's sons Howie and Stan got involved in the business in the 1960s, and later Howie’s son Jeff joined the business, taking over operations management and advertising in 1997. In 2015 the Budd family announced that all three locations would be shutting down due to Howie and Stan's wish to retire. In early January 2016 the Kitchener and Guelph locations closed their doors, and the Simcoe location followed within a month. Budds Department Store was just shy of its 90th anniversary.