Sun Youth co-founder Sid Stevens dies at 85 after seven decades of community service

MONTREAL — Sid Stevens, the co-founder of Montreal-based community organization Sun Youth, has died at age 85.

The organization said Stevens died Sunday surrounded by loved ones.

An obituary on Sun Youth’s website pays tribute to Stevens’s legacy of “generosity, solidarity and community engagement” during more than 70 years of service to Montreal’s youth and vulnerable populations.

“Sid Stevens looked back on over seven decades of community service with pride, knowing he realized his childhood ambition of ‘making a difference,'” the obituary read.

“Countless Montrealers past and present are grateful to him for his dedication.”

Born in Montreal in 1940, Stevens started his community work in 1954 at the age of 13 by selling handwritten newspapers for two cents each and using the funds to buy sports equipment and organize activities for children.

Those efforts grew into Sun Youth, which provides food, clothing, emergency services and programs to tens of thousands of people per year.

Sun Youth says that over his long career, Stevens helped oversee the establishment of Quebec’s first food bank, led relief efforts for victims of fires, floods and Quebec’s 1998 ice storm, and implemented home delivery services for people with reduced mobility.

Stevens was also elected to city council in 1978, where he focused on crime prevention programs including the creation of Crime Stoppers.

Photos on the organization’s website show Stevens over the years posing alongside mayors, Quebec premiers and former prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Jean Chrétien.

A number of people paid tribute to Stevens on social media on Monday, including Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and Quebec legislature member Elisabeth Prass.

“A lifelong champion of inner-city youth and low-income families, Sid transformed a grassroots sports and recreation initiative into an organization that now supports hundreds of thousands of Montrealers — through food banks, camps, emergency aid, and more,” Prass wrote. “His legacy of compassion, leadership, and community impact lives across the city.”

Stevens was made a member of the Ordre de Montreal and the Ordre national du Québec in recent years for his dedication to youth and his community.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2025.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press