The Kitchener-Waterloo Federated Charities was formed in 1941 by community and business leaders to raise money for war work done by local agencies. When World War II ended, the organization continued to raise money for local social service organizations and charities. In 1969 its name was changed to Federated Appeal of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area. On June 12, 1984 the board voted to join United Way/Centraide Canada and its name was changed again, to United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area. The organization's mandate has always been to aid people who need help by conducting a yearly fund-raising campaign benefitting its member agencies, who provide that help. (Williams, Cindy. Fifty Years of Caring and Sharing: a History of the United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area, 1941-1991. Kitchener, Ont.: United Way of Kitchener-Waterloo and Area, 1993, c1992.)

The University of Waterloo Tiddlywinks Club was formed in the Student Village at the University of Waterloo in October 1965.[1]

Charles McLeod, a graduate student in mathematics, was one of the founders of the group and applied for a grant from the Federation of Students (now the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association, WUSA) to start the club. Initially, the Federation of Students did not take this grant request seriously and laughed at the proposal. However, McLeod was able to convince the committee of the merits of tiddlywinks and was given the grant.[2]

The club had approximately 80 members in 1966. All members were issued membership cards that showed an affiliation to the English Tiddlywink Association and the International Federation of Tiddlywink Association.[3]

The club imported equipment from England however the items were held by Canadian custom officials who suspected the parcel labeled “tiddlywinks” contained something sinister. The parcel was eventually released when a university official explained the game of tiddlywinks.[4]

On February 12, 1966, the University of Waterloo won the Canadian championship in a 16-game playoff with Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University), the only other team in Canada. The final score was 80 to 26 with the University of Waterloo winning 14 of the games.[5]

The University of Waterloo team travelled to Harvard University to compete in the North American Tiddlywink Championship on February 25, 1966, and won. The team had ambitions to then travel to England and compete in the World Championships at either Oxford or Cambridge University.[6] The prize was a trophy donated by Prince Philip known as “Silver Wink.”[7]

In October 1966, the University of Waterloo team staged a marathon to set the world record of 56 hours of continuous tiddlywinks at Waterloo Square.[8] This event was held to draw attention to the team’s need to raise $4,400 for ten members to travel to England and complete in the World Championships in February 1967.[9] The team successfully set the new record by beating the previous record of 55 hours of continuous play by the Lanchester College of Technology (now Coventry University).[10] However, the club was likely unable to raise enough money to attend the World Championships as there does not appear to be any mention of this event in local or campus newspapers.

On October 28, 1967, the University of Waterloo hosted the North American Tiddlywinks Championship, the first time this event was held in Canada. Five teams challenged the defending University of Waterloo Tiddlywinks Club.[11] The University of Waterloo lost to Cornell University in the final round by a score of 61 to 51.[12] Despite this loss, the team was still eligible to compete in the World Championships at Oxford University in Spring 1968 if they could raise the money to go. Lord Thomson and Coca Cola declined to sponsor the team. It was suggested that the Athletic department help finance the team through the $22 athletic fee charged to students, since this was the only team at the university with world championship caliber at the time.[13] The club was likely unable to raise enough money to attend the World Championships as there does not appear to be any mention of this event in local or campus newspapers.

Although the University of Waterloo Tiddlywinks Club continued to host campus tournaments in 1968, it appears the club's popularity declined.[14] It's unclear if the club was active beyond 1968.

Known members of the club include: Jon Ingram, Charles McLeod, John Kohler, , Mark Taylor, Henry Sheilds, Helmut Roth, Andy Tomaino, Marie Kennedy, Ihor Gawdan, Paul Gardner, Barry Gillespie, Ronald Rumm, Ross Bell, Paul Freeman, Bill Webb, and Rosie Wain.[15]

Stephanie Urbs was born in 1847. She was the daughter of Marie Hespler, who was the sister of Jacob Hespler. Urbs was married to Joseph Emm Seagram in 1869. She died in 1909.

Jane Urquhart was born in 1949 in Little Long Lac, Ontario, and received her education in Toronto and Guelph. A novelist and poet, her work has been published since 1982, and includes False Shuffles (1982), The Little Flowers of Madame de Montespan (1984), The Whirlpool (1986), Storm Glass (1987), Changing Heaven (1990), Away (1993) and The Underpainter (1997).

Jane Urquhart has been writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa, at Memorial University, and most recently in 1997 at the University of Toronto. In 1997 she was awarded the Governor General's Award for Fiction for her novel The Underpainter. Prior to 1997 she had already been the recipient of several literary awards: Le Prix de Meilleure Livre Etrangere (Best Foreign Book Award), France, for The Whirlpool, 1992, The Trillium Book Award in 1993, and the Marian Engel Prize in 1994.
In 1997 Jane Urquhart received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo.

Anthony Morse ("Tony") Urquhart, was born at Niagara Falls, Ont., on April 9, 1934. "He studied art at the Albright Art School and U[niversity] of Buffalo. In 1961 he joined a group of London, Ont. artists, including Greg Curnoe and Jack Chambers, who advocated a regional approach to art. Drawing from his own experiences, Urquhart works in a style that makes explicit reference to the underlying complexities and paradoxes he sees in the local landscape. In his boxed landscape sculptures of the 1960's he achieved a surreal juxtaposition of savage and primordial relationships with the actual and familiar. The constructions become at once a personal interior space and a universal collective landscape." [By Kathleen Laverty from Canadian Encyclopedia, 1985.]

Tony Urquhart passed away on January 26, 2022.

William Valores "Ben" Uttley, newspaper owner and editor, was born January 1, 1865 in Elmira, Ontario. He started the Daily Record in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, selling it in 1919 to purchase the Elmira Signet. He served as a member of City Council at intervals between 1905 and 1919. He was an original member of the Waterloo Historical Society, and wrote A History of Kitchener, Ontario. He died May 26, 1944 and was buried in Elmira's Saint James Lutheran Cemetery.

Scott Alexander Vanstone was a professor of mathematics at St. Jerome's University and Waterloo Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, and was known for his work in combinatorial design theory, finite geometry and finite fields. Born in 1947, he completed his studies in math at Waterloo (BMath '70, MMath '71, PhD '74). Upon his retirement in 2009, he was appointed Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Vanstone died in Campbellville, Ontario on March 2, 2014.

Verkade was founded in 1886 by Ericus Verkade as a bakery making mostly bread and rusks. The company expanded overtime to produce cookies, sweets, and chocolates. In November 2014, the company was acquired by Pladis, a global biscuit, chocolate and confectionery company owned by Yıldız Holding.

1867: Charles Théodore Viau sets up a bakery on rue Sainte-Marie (now Notre Dame) in Montreal, Quebec. The business makes bread and biscuits, including Village biscuits, which exist to this day in the Dare Traditions line.

1900-1901: Théophile Viau, son of the founder, created the first chocolate-coated mallow cookie, "Empire," the precursor of the Whippet, a top-selling Dare brand today.

1906: The planned construction of a new Canadian Pacific rail line forces the expropriation of the Viau factory in downtown Montreal, Quebec.

1907: Opening of a new factory constructed on 1st Ave., now Viau St., just north of Ontario St., in a new suburban area which became known as "Viauville."

1926: Viau listed on the Montreal Stock Exchange, being only the second French-Canadian institution to be admitted, after la Banque Canadienne Nationale.

1927: Whippet launched (named after a popular new Willys-Overland car called Whippet).

1952: $2 million project to almost double the factory, convert the heating plant to oil and add a new administrative building on Ontario St. opposite the plant.

1969: Viau is acquired by Grissol Food Limited (Yves Hudon).

1972: Grissol, including Viau, is acquired by Imasco Foods Limited, the food arm of Imperial Tobacco company.

1983: Imasco Foods, including Viau, is acquired by Culinar.

1999: Montreal cheese company Saputo Inc. buys Culinar, made up of the Vachon snack cakes business and CFS (Cookies, Fine Breads and Soups).

2001: Dare Foods Limited buys Culinar CFS (Cookies, Fine Breads and Soups) from Saputo Inc. Culinar is dissolved.

2003: St. Lambert (formerly Culinar's Lido) cookie plant expanded to accommodate production transferred from former Viau plant in Montreal, Quebec.

2004: Former Viau cookie plant at Viau and Ontario Streets in east-end Montreal closed and sold to a developer for re-purposing as "La Biscuiterie" residential condos.

2004: Dare sells the Loney's soups business to Produits Alimentaires Berthelet of Montreal.

Bharti Vibhakar is an Indian-Canadian business owner, chef and teacher. Born and raised in South Yemen, she moved to Mumbai (then called Bombay) at 22 years of age, where she married and had two children. She immigrated to Canada in 1980, after divorcing her husband. Vibhakar and her daughters initially settled in Guelph, Ontario and moved in 1984 to Kitchener, Ontario. In 1986 she opened Spice of India, on King Street East, where she sold spices for use in cooking and remedies for common ailments, and taught cooking classes with a focus on vegetarian Indian cuisine. She also operated a stall at the Kitchener market, which first opened in 1990, where she sold more than 400 samosas on a typical Saturday. In 1992 Vibhakar released a cookbook titled Spice of India. The publication was edited and introduced by Record columnist Luisa D'Amato. In 2009, at the age of 70, Vibhakar retired, closing both her store and her market stall.

Victoria University is a federated college with the University of Toronto that provides secular studies in the liberal arts and sciences. It was founded in 1836 and named after Queen Victoria.

Bernt Vik was born in Stavanger, Norway, and died in 1999 at the age of 84. He was trained as a textile engineer-designer in Sweden. During the Second World war he was active in the Norwegian anti-Nazi resistance. He came to Canada in 1955 and was employed in a number of textile-related enterprises until retirement in the mid-1980's.

Leonora Laura Thusnelda Hagedorn was born January 26, 1874 to Ernst Adolph Philip and Maria Magdalena "Mary" (nee Kappler) Hagedorn. She married John Edward Thomas Vogt on September 30, 1896 in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener) and together they had three children: Charles Henry, Ernest William, and George Theodore. Vogt died May 11, 1911 from septic poisoning and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Wilhelmine "Minnie" Ahrens was born April 26, 1855 in Kitchener, Ontario to parents Charles Andrew Ahrens and Henrietta Charlotte Roth. She married Ferdinand Von Ende November 12, 1891 and the couple lived in Preston, Ontario. Minnie died May 17, 1933 and is buried in Preston with her husband. who died October 27, 1935.

Susanne von Harpe (nee Baroness von Stackelberg) was born in what is now Tartu, Estonia in 1914. After school she worked in farming and housekeeping and In 1935 she married Ulrich von Harpe. In 1940 the family fled to Germany after Russian troops had occupied Estonia, settling in Schroda. On January 20, 1945 Susanne, Ulrich and their children fled West ultimately to Dotzum. On December 7, 1951 the family sailed to Canada arriving on December 23, and taking the train to their farm in Linwood, Ontario. Susanne spent many years traveling with her husband who was a sailor, and enjoyed painting and writing. Susanne died July 29th, 2008.

The Wagners and Hailers were prominent early settler families in Waterloo County, Ontario, as were the Staebler, Biehn/Bean and Breithaupt families.

Gordon Wagner is the great grandson of Jacob Hailer and grandson of Louis Henry Wagner, who was a first cousin of Louis Jacob Breithaupt.

Born in German, Henry Wagner emigrated to Lyons, New York with his wife Anna Maria Eckhard (1796-1850) and son Jacob Wagner in 1840 where he established a farm.

Born in Siefersheim, German, Jacob emigrated to Lyons, New York, with his parents in 1840. He originally worked as a farmer and a cooper before beginning to preach at age 18 under the tutelage of Rev. Joseph Harlacher. Jacob married Margaret Hailer (1831-1918) and they had two living children, Rev. Louis Henry (1857-1945) and Catherine (b.1852).

Rev. Louis Henry Wagner was born April 11, 1857 in New York to Jacob Wagner and Margaret Hailer. After his father's death his mother re-married Daniel Biehn (Bean) and he was educated in primary school. At the age of 13 he was invited to move to Kitchener by his grandfather Jacob Hailer and his uncle Louis Breithaupt. Here he attended Berlin Central School, high school, and then apprenticed as a tanner under his uncle Louis. He later attended Northwestern College in Naperville, Illinois. In 1878 he returned to Kitchener and worked again for his uncle as a bookkeeper and salesman. In 1882 he began working as an itinerant preacher for the Evangelical Association. He married Mary Staebler (1859-1887) on May 20, 1884 and she died two weeks after giving birth to their only child, Louis. He re-married in 1889 to Sarah Lodema Moyer (1861-1941). Louis Henry would continue to preach in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan until his death. He died in Kitchener on January 8, 1945 at the age of 87 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery.

James (Jim) William Saint George Walker was born on August 5, 1940, in Toronto, and grew up in Agincourt, Ontario. Walker received his Bachelor's degree in History from Trinity College at the University of Toronto (1962), his Master’s degree in History from the University of Waterloo (1967), and his Ph.D. in History from Dalhousie University (1973). In 1976, Walker published his Ph.D. dissertation under the title The Black Loyalists: the search for a promised land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870 with Longman International Education, which he later republished with the University of Toronto Press in 1992 and 2017.

During his time as a student in the 1960s, Walker worked in a Gandhian ashram in India under the auspices of Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO) and he participated in the local support group for the US civil rights movement (“Friends of SNCC”) in Toronto. During Canada’s Centennial, he was Youth and Education Director for the Centennial International Development Programme. While at Dalhousie, Walker co-founded and taught the "Transition Year Program" designed to prepare African-Canadian and First Nations students for university entrance.

James Walker joined the University of Waterloo as a History professor in 1971. At the University of Waterloo, he created the first university-level course in African-Canadian History offered in Canada and Canada's first Public History graduate program; served as Chair of the Department of History (1981-1986); and taught courses in general History and Race relations, courses focused on Black Canadian and African History, and courses on Social History and Public History. During his research, teaching, and public speaker career his talks, publications, and courses focused on the history of African-Canadians, Canadian and international human rights, Racism in Canada, Race relations in Canada, Immigration, the Holocaust, and civil society and public history.

While in Waterloo, Walker co-founded and was a long-time board member of the Global Community Centre of Kitchener-Waterloo and has served on the boards of several NGOs with an international focus (including CUSO, the WUSC local committee, and the board of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute). Between 2003 and 2004, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council appointed Walker the Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights Research. In 2013, Walker was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. And in 2016, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada.

In 2020, Walker retired from his professor role and remained as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of Waterloo.

During his professional years, James Walker published numerous articles, book chapters, and books, including, among others:

• The Black Loyalists : The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, Longman and Dalhousie University Press, 1976 (1992, 2017).
• Racial discrimination in Canada: the Black experience, Canadian Historical Association, 1985.
• "Race," Rights and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada: Historical Case Studies, The Osgoode Society and Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997.
• Critical Mass: The Emergence of Global Civil Society, Centre for International Governance Innovation and Wilfrid Laurier University Press, co-authored with Andrew Thompson, 2008.
• “A Black Day in Court: ‘Race’ and Judging in R v RDS” in The African-Canadian Legal Odyssey, edited by Barrington Walker, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and University of Toronto Press, 2012.
• Burnley "Rocky" Jones : revolutionary : an autobiography, Fernwood Publishing, 2016.