Sandycove Acres Turns 40 Years Young!

Sandycove Acres held a mammoth Pig Roast for our residents this past September to help celebrate 40 years of service as an Active Adult Lifestyle Community to the residents of Sandycove Acres since 1971. 

 Over 1,400 of our residents attended this event and enjoyed stopping by our historical tent to hear the stories and view the pictures of how we grew from our original 100 homes in 1971 to over 1,254 homes today.  

 
The Fig Leaf Jazz Band entertained the crowds while the pigs roasted on spits overnight for this two day event.  One of the popular items was a stop by an old fashioned ice cream parlour providing our residents with hand scooped ice cream.   Shaw’s catering wowed the crowds with their wagon buffet, complete with a roasted pig on display as the star attraction. 

General Managers Rod Rice and Trevor Robertson welcomed the crowds and spoke about how the community was founded by their fathers Max Rice and David Robertson.  “Sandycove is a vibrant community…we’re running it with all the same family values”.  Special guests included our MP for York Simcoe, the Hon.  Peter Van Loan, MPP Julia Munro, Innisfil Mayor Barb Baguley & Members of Council.

Four of our current homeowners Jack & Aileen Ross, Eileen Hardy & Lois Franks were all recognized as original residents who chose Sandycove as their retirement community for the past 40 years.   All of these residents purchased a Royal model home in 1971 and still live in the same house 40 years later!   Jack Ross also celebrated his 100^th birthday & a milestone 80^th anniversary shortly after this event.  

Staff also enjoyed meeting the multiple generations of families who have chosen to live in Sandycove as they become empty nesters and/or retired.  This is a great testament to the vibrant & active lifestyle Sandycove has to offer its residents.

SANDYCOVE Fashion Show Goes Pink



Each year a generous group of Sandycove men & women donate all their time & energy to organize a very successful Community Fashion Show to support RVH Hospital Cancer Centre. This fashion show has a different approach to stocking items for the show by allowing residents to clean out their closets over items that have “shrunk” over the past year to donate to this two day sale & show.

Preparations begin months ahead and the Sandycove Ladies run a well organized army of volunteers to gather all the clothes, accessories, jewellery & small home decorating items then spend days sorting & pricing items for sale while the men set up all the racks of clothing & tables for the big event. There is also a barbeque lunch for all the hungry shoppers.

The real fun begins Saturday evening with the fashion show. Sandycove residents model some of the items donated to the sale and the long awaited grand finale is the men’s comical skit on the women’s fashions. The sale continues with a final day of everything you can fit in a shopping bag for a small fee. All remaining items are donated to local shelters & goodwill.

This charity event donates 100% of the money raised from ticket & clothing sales to the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre at Royal Victoria Hospital. Last year this group raised $6,525.00 at their event. This brings their generous total to $36,160.00 in donations from past fashion shows from 2005.

Putting on this event is no easy task and shows the generous heart of our Sandycove community as they rally behind community causes. The Sandycove residents are the heart of Innisfil – embracing life, enhancing the lives of others and reaching out to help those who need a helping hand.

Congratulations to the many hard working women and men of Sandycove.

Celebrating 40 Years

Many of the longer term homeowners of Sandycove Acres will know the ownership structure of the company and the visionary management role that was played by Maxwell Rice and David Robertson, for some of you youngsters, here is a short history. Maxwell Rice and David Robertson owned a private 4 passenger plane together and they both owned cottages on Lake Simcoe nearby. They decided that they needed a landing strip for the plane and bought a farm on Lockhart Road.


It turned out that the land use bylaws of the day permitted the development of certain residential communities on the farm. Maxwell, coming from the house construction industry, and David coming from the manufactured housing industry, put their combined expertise together and formulated a vision of what has become one of the largest Adult Lifestyle Communities in Canada – Sandycove Acres!

That was in 1971. For more than 32 years, Maxwell Rice and Dave Robertson were actively involved in the management and development of Sandycove Acres.

In many ways Sandycove Acres Limited is a family company. As such it is a closely held company with many family members taking an active part in the operation of the company. That family approach has influenced the character of Sandycove Acres. It has helped to ensure that ownership remained in the same hands for 40 years. It has also contributed to the “hands on” approach which management has taken over the years, and has helped to continue the longevity of the management team and the integrity of the community. Many of you will know that Rod Rice and Trevor Robertson, sons of founding owners have held senior management positions since 2001.

Trevor & I were childhood friends, went our separate ways in business, and now find ourselves working together here at Sandycove Acres. We share the responsibilities of General Managers working in conjunction with Denyse Beattie, Steve Tompkins and the Sandycove Acres staff. Maxwell Rice passed away in 2006. David Roberson continues to play an advisory role.

Trevor and I appreciate the confidence shown by Sandycovers in the whole management team here at Sandycove. Our job is to ensure the success of Sandycove Acres. We intend to do that to the best of our ability. We will measure that success by the degree of satisfaction that you as Sandycovers have in your decision to live here in this fine community. We look forward to meeting and working with many of you in the upcoming year.

Rod Rice