Josh Bach’s Story

Joshua M. Bach came from Ontario to Abbotsford in 2006 when his late wife, Vicky, got a job with Fraser Health as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. He and his wife packed up and moved to beautiful British Columbia, leaving their two daughters in University in Ontario. Josh feels that Abbotsford is a great community and he talks about this often to various people, including strangers. He believes that the church base gives a foundation of community. He also enjoys the diversity and the beautiful setting of Abbotsford.
Josh comes from a family of those who feel it’s important to give back to others. A family history of volunteering and giving back provided Josh with the tools he needed to get involved with the community of Abbotsford. When Josh and his wife first moved to Abbotsford, he started attending Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce events in hopes of meeting others and getting involved in the community; this is how he recalls first hearing about the Abbotsford Community Foundation. He now volunteers by sitting on various boards and committees and has been doing so for a number of years now, including the ACF Planned Giving Committee.  It is no surprise that Josh was also a Rotarian for many years. Since we are all part of a community, Josh feels it’s important that we participate in it and not just be bystanders.
One thing that Josh learned from his late wife Vicky’s battle with ALS was to be more kind and giving. This is part of what lead Josh and his family to create the Vicky Bach Memorial Scholarship through the Abbotsford Community Foundation that provides $1,000 to a high school student who is going on to study nursing. Vicky cared strongly about the field of nursing care and was respected among practitioners as an expert in gerontology, medicine and palliative care. Josh wants Vicky’s legacy to live on by providing hopeful nursing studies students with the opportunity to make a difference in the field like his late wife did.
Josh also hopes he will leave a legacy of someone who moved here, jumped into the community, and worked to make this great city even better. “I think it is important to do good in the world, to repair the world, to make the world better than before.”