Fall 2008 Newsletter - RTO/ERO District 7 Windsor-Essex

est wishes for a stimulating new year. Thanks to
web-master Ann Cotter for her creative visual
documentation.
September 22 nd , saw your executive’s first meeting at
the newly named United Community’s Credit Union
Essex (formerly Woodslee Credit Union). We thank
the Credit Union for their generosity and continued
commitment to our longevity.
To date our membership enrollment is at 2,061. Our
packed Agenda pointed to many requests for money
related to exciting member community programmes.
Following the December 1 st application deadline,
funded recipients will be announced at our December
meeting. Interested members can still make
application by checking our website. We are also
committed to supporting our local “Snoezelen Room”
request for Toronto Project “Service to Others”
monies for the 2008/09 year.
Thanks to Jim Sparrow, our Treasurer and Political
Action Provincial Chair, for his recent many hours of
research (5 years of file retrieval) to bring the
Government’s Retail Sales Branch in Whitby, Ontario
the news that, as a non-profit organization, our local
RTO/ERO should not have to pay sales tax for our
newsletter as we do not collect monies through
advertising. Jim will be receiving a check soon for
over $1,700 to be returned to our account! Other
good news kudos go to Helen Biales, Windsor’s
Senior Committee’s Vice Chair, for asking Windsor’s
City Hall to consider hiring a “Seniors Advocate”, a
voice for seniors overall. She says “seniors have paid
more taxes than anybody else and they deserve respect,
quality services, and a friendly municipal ear!” Many
thanks to Norm Renaud, our district Political Action
Chair and Provincial representative for Project Service
to Others, for seeing that an important message from
our local RTO/ERO will be broadcast forty times
throughout the election period to let the public know
our concerns as retired educators. Norm also sits on
our Bursary Committee with seven other members of
our Executive and is researching a new way for our
local District to interact with future University of
Windsor student teacher recipients. Special recognition
must go to Sheila Wright, former Executive member
and Chair of this important outreach committee, for
her many hours of excellent leadership and dedicated
service to this process. Sincere appreciation goes to
our Member Records Chair, Dorothy Clement, who
has given thirteen years of fine dedication to this
committee since 1995. Dorothy will be finishing her
long tenure as of December and, prior to that, helping
us find her replacement. We wish her and husband
Jerry the very best! Many thanks also go to
Professors Peggy Buck (U. of W.) and Jim
Mroczkowski (Faculty of Nipissing), to Web-Master,
Ann Cotter, to Don Learn, and to Simone Rickerby
for their talented support of this year’s education
workshops for our members. We are grateful to St.
Gregory Parish for the use of their excellent facility.
Judy Bowden, our talented Secretary will now also be
our new teacher liaison representative with the Faculty
of Education, University of Windsor. We thank
Simone Rickerby (V.P) for her excellent work as past
representative. Finally, special get well wishes must go
out to Executive member Emy McBride regarding her
recent golf course mishap.
Your Executive will have four of our members in
attendance at the Fall Pre-Senate in Stratford and
Senate in Toronto (names TBA). We wish our
Provincial Representative Bob Lamoureux “good
luck” as he is seeking office again as 2 nd Vice-
President.
We look forward to seeing you at our November 13 th
Fall Luncheon along with our Crafters and guest
speaker Ken Attridge, Past President & Certified
Senior Advisor (C.S.A.) with a presentation focusing
on medical, social, and financial issues for seniors.
More information will follow regarding our 25 th
Anniversary. Please also let our Executive know if
you have an interest in becoming a replacement on one
of our many committees. In the meantime, check out
your local and Provincial Office Directory at
www.rto-ero.org and please note Sport Fest Windsor
at www.sport-fest.ca as they are now supporting a
newly formed National Registry for organ and tissue
donation. A Tissue Donor Registration form can be
found at www.giftoflife.on.ca.
A final thought on living your dreams………
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said.
“One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice”, said the
Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for
half an hour a day. Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as
many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
( Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass)
Warm regards,
Al Linnell