You may have heard reference to the rat race, but what do you make of scooter races? For me, it’s been one highlight of many in the past year in my role as CEO at Five Counties Children’s Centre.
The scooter race started innocently enough last summer when one of our clients, Hamish, came for his weekly treatment sessions at our Peterborough site. I got to know Hamish and his family well and, from there, evolved a friendly competition between us to see who was the king of speed.
After his treatment appointment was over, I’d race Hamish down the hall on a scooter to see who was fastest! While competitive, this was a friendly rivalry that always ended in a high-five or fist pump.
Gotta love working with kids!
Hamish is one of thousands of children and youth with physical, developmental, or communication needs that Five Counties supported over the past year in Peterborough, Northumberland County, City of Kawartha Lakes, and Haliburton County. In fact, during 2025/26, the centre served 6,574 kids/clients — the highest number in our 50-plus history!
That number is out of this world, and brings to mind the Artemis II crew members who captivated us earlier this spring with their successful flyby of the Moon and their safe return to Earth. In looping around the far side of the Moon, the spacecraft crew went further from Earth than anyone in human history.
The Artemis II exploits bring to mind the words of Norman Vincent Peale, an author best known for popularizing the concept of positive thinking. Peale once said: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
At Five Counties, reaching for the stars happens every day. It’s evident in our kids (like Hamish) who work diligently with our staff and their own families to build their abilities for life.
In that way, Five Counties is a launch pad of sorts: working to help kids achieve maximum liftoff by supporting their independence, well-being, and quality of life, while helping and empowering families in our region.
As outlined in our latest annual report for 2025/26, it was a busy and banner year. In addition to a record number of clients served, the centre gained public recognition for its work, launched an innovative new campaign that asks families to Rethink Therapy, and celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Consider that, in 2025/26, Five Counties Children’s Centre:
- Provided a total of 56,687 client visits last year — another record count — and an increase of nearly 1,300 visits from 2024/25.
- Kept wait times in check for kids’ treatment services, despite an 11.8 per cent increase in client referrals to the centre last year. Only 18 more kids were added to its wait list in 2025/26, even as the centre served 366 more clients year-over-year.
- Supported 3,928 local students through the centre’s school-based rehabilitation services, even as we continued to implement tiered intervention in schools to ensure the right students get the right care at the right time.
- Spent a total of 4,199 hours last year offering support and skill-building training to families, schools and child-care facilities. Put another way, the time works out to nearly 175 days, or more than six months, of capacity building with these groups.
- Officially opened our new accessible backyard space at Five Counties in Cobourg to enhance treatment, recreation, cultural awareness and outdoor education programs in the community.
- Created the new Purchased Services Abilities in Action program as a new treatment pathway for children with autism and their families who quality for funding through the Ontario Autism Program. This came as the centre also successfully recruited a new pediatrician and doctors over the past year to better support, and more quickly, screen kids for autism.
The credit for these activities and accomplishments rests with our staff members. While our buildings are made of bricks and mortar, Five Counties staff are the inner heart and soul that enable us to do what we do every day.
And it’s more than just numbers. Behind every statistic is a personal interaction and human connection made between our staff members, children and their families. We want to help our kids reach the stars and, through our staff’s dedication and work, Five Counties is doing that!
Zimbabwean-Canadian author, philosopher, and entrepreneur Matshona Dhliwayo once said, “Gravity is no match against one who is determined to reach the stars.”
Take a walk around our centre sites any day and you’ll see those words in action, no rockets required (just scooters, when Hamish and I renew our racing rivalry)!
