The Burlington Downtown Business Association is celebrating 40 years of memories!

From November 15 – December 15th, 2020 we invited all residents and business owners to join us for a walk down memory lane for a chance to make even more memories with one of 3 grand-prize overnight visits to our beautiful downtown core. View full contest here.

Sharon and Daniel’s memory: 

We moved to Canada in November 2018 as Permanent Residents, leaving behind our home, our families and our jobs… I remember sitting one weekend, months before we moved, looking for “best cities in Ontario” and found an amazing little city called Burlington. Read about it, saw some pictures – the city hall, downtown and then finally the gorgeous lakeshore! I remember falling in love with it the minute I set my eyes on it and told my husband Daniel, “I think I’ve found our new home.”

It is never easy to move and start all over again. Change, though beautiful, can be challenging and as first generation immigrants we faced this first hand.

However in those challenging moments we started falling in love with our new home, our new city Burlington. We were touched by how warm and welcoming everyone was, how helpful people were! From getting advice by a random stranger in Walmart about what to look for when buying a good winter jacket, getting directions from strangers when we were lost, to getting advice on the best restaurants nearby! It was winter when we moved, we didn’t have a car and didn’t really know our surroundings that much so we ended up spending almost all winter indoors!

Spring came and we decided it was time we ventured outside. We googled “downtown Burlington” and just started walking. Our first ever restaurant meal in Burlington was that gorgeous day – a slice of pizza each from Lugano’s! We were pleasantly surprised and beaming with joy when we could see the lake from the street and decided to have our pizza at the lakeside. We continued walking till we reached the lakeshore and the pier. We were mesmerized. Beautiful blue waters, clear blue sky, the pier looking like art against it all! We sat on the rocks, just breathing it all in. Took a few photos and sent it to our families back home. It was surreal to realize that this is what I saw on google months back, this is the life we envisioned for ourselves and here we are! A young immigrant couple starting afresh, starting our second innings.

New dreams. New hopes. New life. We were home.