Beach Metro Community News says thank you to our local supporters and volunteers over the past year

By SUSAN LEGGE

As the year 2025 ends, all of us at Beach Metro Community News want to say a sincere thank you.

Since 1972, this community-owned, non-profit newspaper has existed thanks to the trust and support of the neighbourhoods we serve. This year, you showed that trust in action once again.

We are grateful to our readers, volunteers, donors and business owners who make independent, community-focused journalism possible.

This is your newsroom, and these are your stories.

This year reminded us why community news matters. We covered many of the local candidates running in two elections — provincial and federal — bringing local voices and issues such as housing, affordability, and immigration into focus.

We also hosted two candidate town hall meetings with the Balmy Beach Residents Association, creating space for residents to ask questions and engage directly on local issues. We will continue to cover politics in 2026 with stories on the Toronto municipal election in October, with a focus on the ridings of Beaches-East York, Scarborough Southwest and Toronto-Danforth.

We reported on development pressures, neighbourhood planning meetings, and education funding challenges, including potential pool closures as school boards wrestle with deficits.

We also want to thank our columnists — many of whom have been sharing their voices and perspectives for decades — and give Beach Metro much of its character and soul.

Our interns this year have brought energy, curiosity, and dedication to our newsroom: Matthew, Amarachi, and Josh, with Amarachi and Josh now at the Toronto Star and Matthew continuing here as a reporter; Conrad, Vincent, Mai, Abby, Sierra, Wren, Kat, Natasha, and Marqus from Centennial College; Julia from TMU; Violet from Seneca College; Cole and Aunalya from Malvern Collegiate Institute; and Isabelle from Notre Dame Catholic High School. Their work reflects our role as a teaching newsroom, and we’re proud to work with them.

We are especially grateful to our devoted volunteer carriers, who deliver the paper 23 times a year, rain or shine, snow or sun, and to our board of directors for their time and fresh ideas.

Special thanks to Thomas Craig and the Balmy Beach Club for another wonderful fundraiser earlier this month, hosted by the amazing Michael McLaughlin.

Your support reminds us why this work matters and helps sustain it, at a time when fewer and fewer communities have access to local news.

As we look ahead to 2026, our commitment remains the same: to show up, listen, and tell this community’s stories with care, fairness, and integrity, and to keep earning your trust.

— Susan Legge is the Publisher of Beach Metro Community News.