Sid Slonim has a lot of stories to tell. An outgoing and friendly man who exudes an air of confidence, he is clearly a natural leader, an efficient organizer, a concerned caregiver, an astute business man and, at the age of 81, a gifted athlete. Many of these traits are in evidence weekday mornings at the Rady Centre where Sid supervises a group of his peers in a weight training class, before spending an another hour or two working out and visiting with old and new friends. He has been a member of the YMHA, or the Rady Centre, he says proudly, for more than 70 years.

Born in Winnipeg, Sid was raised in the north end with his younger brother Morley. Another brother, Aubrey, died in infancy. Sid's Russian born parents, Henry and Ann (Adas), both came to Canada as young children, and were well-respected and well-known Jewish community activists. Henry was a founder of the Hebrew Fraternal Lodge, and both were founders of the I.L. Peretz Folk School where Ann was a perennial president of the Muterfarein. She also was a founding member and president of the Winnipeg Jewish Community Choir and Musical Club, among other organizations, and a frequent delegate to Jewish Congress meetings across North America. They also contributed to the founding of the Jewish Historical Society.

Sid's parents were very proud of him and he grew up surrounded by love. He studied at the Peretz School, where he sang in the choir, and he had a Bar Mitzvah at his grandfather's synagogue, followed by a dinner and dance at the Hebrew Fraternal Lodge. He attended high school at St. John's Tech where he was very active and won a scholarship for his all around school efforts. He was an All Star football player and a great bowler — he bowled in the YMHA Rec Men's 10 pin League when he was only 16 and won a Boxing Day Roll Off in 1946 and a league championship in 1947 — but he reserved his greatest passion for the game of curling, in which he excelled. In 1949 his Maple Leaf curling team captured the City Hydro event, marking the first and only time that an all-Jewish rink won a first prize in the Manitoba Bonspiel, still the largest bonspiel in the world.

Upon graduating with honours from high school, Sid began working as a booker at MGM in the Film Exchange. He then joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942 and served two and a half years overseas, returning to Winnipeg in June, 1946. At that time, he turned down a request to play professional football and instead resumed his job at the Film Exchange. In August, Sid and several partners purchased and renamed the St. John's Curling Club. There Sid curled several times a week, sat on the executive of the Maple Leaf Curling Club and mentored youngsters in the game. The executive then organized yearly B'nai Brith Bonspiels which attracted Jewish curlers from across Canada and the U.S.A. Sid won at least fifty trophies participating locally and across Western Canada.

Sid married Sheila Wire in 1949, and by 1952 was looking for a new job opportunity. Determined to be his own boss, he decided to become a manufacturer's agent. He drove to Toronto and Montreal, and returned with three exclusive lines to sell. Initially, Sid spent seven weeks on the road, four times a year, traveling in and out of small prairies towns. After two years, having built up his lines, he was able to focus more on big city clients. At one time in fact, he had 21 local customers just between Portage and Main and the Hudson's Bay Company. Less time on the road naturally meant that Sid was able to spend more time at home with his two children, Roxanne and Ross. Sid eventually divorced and in 1995 he married Pearl (Korman).

Retiring after forty years representing world famous Aquascutum, Sid still does some part-time marketing. This work, combined with his interest in the stock market and his daily workouts at the Rady Centre, manage to keep him as busy as wants to be. He thinks that the Asper Campus is a wonderful facility and evidence of what a great Jewish community we have here — one of the most philanthropic for its size in all of North America.