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Linda Shirley (second from right) recently received the ACE Award of Excellence for community impact.

Photo courtesy The Arts Connection

Arts Connection founder honoured with national child care award

By Richmond Sentinel

Published 3:28 PDT, Mon July 21, 2025

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Linda Shirley, president and founder of Richmond company The Arts Connection—comprising Renaissance Academy of Learning and The Arts Conservatory—was recently honoured with a national child care award for community impact.

The ACE Awards of Excellence, awarded for the first time this year by the Association of Canadian Early Learning Programs, celebrate hardworking and impactful early learning professionals.

“Over the years I have received numerous awards and acknowledgements for my leadership, creative vision, and community initiatives, but to receive this award on a national level was truly appreciated and a bit of surprise, to be honest,” says Shirley.

For the past 35 years, Shirley’s approach has focused on role-modelling compassion and teaching children the importance of giving back to the community. Students at Renaissance Kids daycare take part in a number of fundraising initiatives each year, along with their families and teachers.

Recent fundraising efforts have included building homes in Sri Lanka, helping Fraser Valley flood victims, supporting safe houses for victims of domestic violence, and helping to rescue animals suffering in war-torn countries. This past year the school has directed its funds towards the Boundaries Family Group which supports families dealing with addiction and other traumas, contributed to the construction of a new youth mental health wing at Richmond Hospital, and donated to the Filipino Society to support those affected by the Lapu-Lapu festival tragedy.

As the Community Arts Council of Richmond (CACR) vice-president, Shirley also spearheads and sponsors its annual Faces of Richmond event, which this year was jointly sponsored by the Richmond RCMP. The event celebrates local seniors by matching them with artists who paint their portraits as well as recording interviews that allow them to tell their stories. This year, a group of four- and five-year-old Renaissance Kids students performed in front of 125 guests at the luncheon honouring the seniors and artists who gave their time to this community project.

Art teachers at The Arts Conservatory fine arts school are also involved with Reach to Teach, a fine arts initiative that bridges diverse communities and offers equitable arts access. The Arts Connection has created a unique partnership with the CACR, a registered federal charity, showing how private businesses and non-profits can work together on behalf of community causes. The school provides the space and helps with the costs of professional instructors, supplies, administrative support, and food service for this program each year.

In May 2025, Shirley also received the City of Richmond’s Volunteerism Award in recognition of her longtime efforts.

“By engaging young children in these community-based projects, we are helping to build empathetic, responsible, and caring future leaders. Children learn by example and active engagement in such meaningful initiatives,” says Shirley.

“Sadly, too much time is often spent nowadays focusing on academic achievements, getting into elite private schools, and just keeping children busy. Parents are distracted by phones and work demands, and it often becomes easier to give children a screen of some sort and let it keep them occupied. Children can become socially crippled by a lack of interaction with adults who can have meaningful conversations with them about the world around them and the needs of others who they cross paths with at school or through their extended family and friends. This is what we’re trying to achieve at our school: an environment that focuses on emotional and personal growth through community engagement while keeping a happy balance with academic goals.”