Sun Youth founder Sid Stevens dies at 85

Montreal has lost a champion for inner-city youth and low-income families after Sid Stevens, founder of Sun Youth, died at 85.

Montreal has lost a champion for inner-city youth and low-income families.

Sid Stevens died Sunday at age 85.

Stevens co-founded the Sun Youth organization, and in the more than 70 years since, it has evolved into an essential community resource.

In 1954, when Stevens was just 13 years old, he started what would become a Montreal institution.

“We wanted to keep ourselves busy and out of trouble because at that time – 1954, 1955 – you couldn’t hang around on the street the police would charge you with loitering,” said Stevens in a prior interview.

In the back of a shoe repair shop, Stevens and his nine-year-old friend, Earl de la Perralle, launched a newspaper -- more of a pamphlet, really -- for their largely immigrant neighbourhood around Clark Street, where there wasn’t much for kids to do.

“We started a hand-written newspaper that we used to circulate from door to door,” he said. “We’d rent you a newspaper for two cents a copy. We wrote about all kinds of events happening. We generated $500 worth of revenue that year.”

That $500 was reinvested and just six years later, Sun Youth was formed.

“We’ve gone from a small little newspaper into a large conglomerate organization with about a $7-million budget, 1,500 volunteers and helping thousands of people throughout the year. So we don’t believe it ourselves sometimes,” he said.

Johanne Saltarelli, Sun Youth’s current executive director, reflected on the man’s life and impact, saying he was an inspiration to many Montrealers – and to her, personally.

“Mr. Stevens was bigger than life. For 70 years, he served this community. His whole being was about servicing people. The impact is huge. He’s been a pioneer in so many of the city’s programs that are now in existence,” she said. “For myself, personally, I have been with this organization for 50 years. So he was a mentor. He was family. It’s a huge loss for Montrealers.”

Today, Sun Youth hands out free food to 100 people a day. It has clothing banks and summer camps.

The holiday food basket program fills up every year with volunteers pitching in to help families in need.

“It’s part of our values to share with the less fortunate people and everybody was very happy to come here, even if it was a day off,” said Mario Plante, former interim director of the Longueuil police service.

They even provide gifts for parents to give to their kids.

Stevens believed an engaging, stimulating community life gives young people the best possible start.

Sun Youth’s sports programs for disadvantaged youth prove the point.

“Seeing a lot of the youngsters go on to play professional sports, whether it’s football, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s hockey, and when you walk out of the office here and there’s 350 youngsters on the [wall] who’ve done very well in life, that’s a great feeling,” said Stevens.

Some kids got noticed early on with Sun Youth’s annual bicycle giveaway.

“They’ve have to have done something in order for us to give them a bike,” he said.

Those left homeless after fires can also count on Sun Youth. In the early days, Stevens had to get creative to get people out of the cold.

“We used to hijack buses. We actually would stop a bus and we asked people to get off because there were fire victims we had to place and then the mayor approached us, Jean Drapeau at the time, and told us, ‘You can’t hijack buses. If you want we’ll rent you a bus for $50 an hour,’” recalled Stevens.

Today, Sun Youth’s program for fire victims steps in to help when Red Cross support ends.

“With new clothing, we give them bus tickets, we help them with transport if they need to be transported, we can actually transport them,” explained emergency services coordinator Eric Kingsley. “We also help them with coupons at grocery stores.”

In 1978, Stevens won a seat on city council, working directly with former mayor Jean Drapeau to spread Sun Youth programs city-wide.

One of those programs is now known as Info-Crime, the city service that lets people report criminal activity anonymously to police. It started as Crime Stoppers, a Sun Youth program.

Sun Youth also works to battle phone scams and coordinates a rewards program to help police solve crimes and find missing people.

Tommy Kulczyk, who worked as the executive vice-president alongside Stevens for more than 30 years, said the words “dedication” and “commitment” truly encapsulated the man’s spirit.

“I mean, 70 years,” he said. “It’s the end of an era. You won’t see that anymore. You won’t see people dedicating themselves day and night, seven days a week, to grow organizations and to do more,” adding that he changed the lives of countless Montrealers.

Stevens had a habit of never giving up, said Kulczyk.

“Sid used to say, ‘We did something great. Let’s enjoy until 12, and at 12:01, we’ve got to start again.’ Never take for granted, persevere,” he said.

Stevens was rewarded many times for his community work. Both McGill and Concordia universities bestowed him with honorary titles.

The city named him a “Great Montrealer” and granted him the Order of Montreal. He was also named to the Order of Quebec.

To Stevens, his life of service was simple.

“Helping people, taking care of people who need help, go the extra mile, tackle challenges in life I always say, ‘Easy things are done by all the other people,’” he said.

The funeral will take place Thursday, Aug. 21, at 11 a.m. at Paperman & fils at 3888 Jean-Talon St. West in Montreal.

The service is open to all who wish to pay their respect.

- With files from CTV News Montreal’s Denise Roberts and Amy Luft