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Women Educators International (DKG) promotes Professional and personal growth and excellence in edu-cation.

In this newsletter you will read a message from our British Columbia Chair, Lorrie Williams, Interview of Marilyn Rushton, as well as chapter news and excerpts from Joan Wolfe’s letter to chapter pres-idents.Thank you to all contributors.

As always, I encourage each of you to check out our wonderful website kept current by Phyllis Stich. http://dkgbc.weebly.com

British Columbia’s Totem Talk

February 2018volume 23

editor Lennor Stieda rol-len@shaw.ca

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Attention All for our Lorrie’s Message.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE :  

Austin July 15 - 20:  As I complete preparations for Austin,  I know this will be an historic conference.  This is the birthplace of DKG and for that alone, I made the decision to attend.  Made the hotel reservations and began col-lecting roommates:  first Ank from the Netherlands  who I met in Amsterdam.  I was there as an international speaker and I had the pleasure of staying at her home.  She had one of those skinny five storey houses. Ank laughingly referred to my room as the Matterhorn, as I was on the top floor accessible by a narrow staircase. Secondly, Donna Faye signed on and then Ank added the fourth, a Dutch woman.  Four in a room is better than you imagine.  The cost is quartered and the good times quadrupled.  It is not too late to come to Texas.  Give it some serious thought.  Flights are still available.  The hotel still has rooms and people are looking for roommates.Don't forget to plan for the Symposium on Saturday, April 28.  Looking for-ward to seeing everyone there.

 

April Symposium Achieving Balance as Women Leaders

Dear All,

We have exciting news in that our main Speaker for the day will be Charlene SanJenko from powHERhouse ( moving women forward, faster, together.)

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Charlene lives in Gibsons, is on the municipal council and has in-spired women around our country with her charisma, charm and knowledge.

So on Friday evening April 27th we will have a potluck of appies and desserts, byob gathering at our vice-chair’s place…Marilyn Rushton’s at 7915 Ewell Street, BurnabyPlease RSVP to Marilyn so she knows numbers. ( mrush-ton@shaw.ca)

On Saturday April 28th we will gather at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club at 8:30 to enjoy being together to share and learn and know that we are being enriched in various ways.

As per usual we will have amazing raffle baskets donated by each chapter and interesting door prizes to win. Watch for the flyer coming out soon to your chapter president for distribution.

Think of whom you might want to invite along as your guest. Last year’s guests enjoyed their day tremendously.

Chapter News As promised we start with news and photos from Burnaby Chapter.The Burnaby Chapter currently has 23 Active Members, and has been in ex-istence since the 1950’s. It was named the “Beta” Chapter, the second chapter to be installed in B.C., and indeed, in Canada, (after “Alpha” in Vancouver). In keeping up with the times, our name

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changed to the Burnaby Chapter, the majority of our members had taught and worked in the Burnaby School District.

Over the years, we have supported three major projects.

Our biggest support goes to CHES (The Canadian Harmabee Education Society). We have sponsored one or two girls in their four-year education term in Africa, at the Harambee School. Each year, when we pay our dues, we add an additional $20.00 to support our “Harambee Girl”. So, over the years, that has become a $500 to $600 donation each year.

A highlight of this relationship has been a visit two summers ago by one of our members, Diane Smith, to the family of Lorrie Mwamire Okunyanyi. Her mother was one of the original students in the CHES school. And, many years later, her daughter, Lorrie, was named after our current Provin-cial President of DKG, Lorrie Williams, one of the founding members of CHES. Diane reported that her visit to Kakamega, a small town in western Kenya, was exciting. In an informal discussion, Diane told us that the peo-ple were gracious, kind, and there was always food to be shared.

Our current student, Esther Marungu Lutomia, a Form 1 student at Bishop Sulumeti Girls High School in Kakamega, Kenya, is a bright and involved young lady. She earns top marks in all of her subjects and participates in many activities at the school. Each year, we receive a statement of her marks and a letter from her. In return, she would love to hear in a letter about our organization and life here in Canada. This year (2017 to 2018), we have given the total amount of money needed to cover the next two years of the education of our now second year “Harambee Girl”.

For our annual Christmas pot-luck dinner, we had put together toiletry bags for the women and children who pass through Dixon House, a safe-house for battered women and their children, located in Burnaby. This year, as they no longer needed these bags, we collected money, and presented them with a cheque for $350.00, to help support these families.

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At the same time, we were able to donate $350.00 to the Burnaby Chil-dren’s Fund. As stated on their website, this charity was “created in 1991 in response to the needs of Burnaby Children who live in poverty. We help provide children with food, clothing, footwear, medical aid, medicines and other necessities.”

The photos are from our Christmas Party 2017. respectfully submitted by Phyllis Stich“recycled president 2016-2018”

THANK YOU FOR AMAZING

GENEROSITY

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Thank you Burnaby Chapter for all the amazing outreach programs you are doing and hopefully will continue to do in the years ahead.

Report from Fraser Shores, January 2018

Linda Delparte and Doris Wilcox, co-presidents.

The group has 20 members. The membership met in

September with a draft schedule for the year; we were unable to meet again until December when members met to put together 227 care packages for Transition Houses; the next scheduled meeting is February 22. The Chapter will be encour-aging members to go to Austin. It must be said that great travel opportunities for cruises has inspired a number of our members to head to warmer climates. Cur-rently Fraser Shores has 3 people involved in the Symposium Plan-ning -Marilyn Rushton, Lorrie Williams and Orrie Babiuk. Our chapter will be encouraging all members to attend the AGM/

Sym-po-

sium; and the chapter will meet again in June for a barbecue at Orrie’s home.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT: VANCOUVER CHAPTER January , 2018

Our membership continues to be stable and currently we have 24 members. It seems our members like the idea of having an alternate meeting and ‘event’ (which still includes a very short meeting). Attendance has been very good with absentees being mostly members who are away on holiday.

Our Entertainment book campaign went well and we sold out our books before December 15. The good news is we are able to continue to offer two $600 bur-saries – one to SFU and one to UBC for a single parent who is studying to become a teacher.

On January 16th we were pleased that Joan Wolfe, Area Rep Canada, attended our meeting.

Our speaker brought us current news about the opioid crisis as she has worked at the BC Centre for Disease Control for twelve years and during that time was in the service line of Harm Reduction and Overdose.

Our November speaker was Daphne Branham of the Vancouver Sun who brought us up to date on the Bountiful court case and also reviewed the history and cir-cumstances of the religious cult. After the talk Daphne spoke passionately about the lax oversight in BC for children who are home schooled. Families have to reg-ister their children at a school to home school. However, there is no legal stan-dard for curriculum, evaluation, or resources. This may be an item you would like to discuss at the chapter level. Letters to BCTF or Minister of Education might be an idea.

Our chapter is fortunate to have active program and membership committees who contribute a great deal to the success of the chapter. Having such a strong core of members should make it easier to recruit a president for the next bien-nium, however, we are still working on finding that person or persons.

THANK YOU SO MUCH

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Submitted

Ann and Frances

South Vancouver Island Update on the Literacy Manipulatives

In the last TT we mentioned our fun evening of preparing and thinking of stories that would lend themselves for retelling with objects .

We were able to send several to schools both in Saanich and Victoria school dis-tricts. An idea for each chapter to think of for future help to working teachers.

As our dear Marilyn Rushton pointed out the actual characters as seen here are per-

fect for vision poor children to learn with and those who need three dimensional items.

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The S.V.I. chapter has working members that are committed but at the moment have much to do with Masters programs plus teaching full time and learning the ropes of Administration, as well as preparing for an amazing cycling trip in Eu-rope. We are small, strong and vibrant.

Some Excerpts from Joan Wolfe’s letter to Chapter Presidents

“You will be aware by now from the website, that Nita Scott was se-lected to be the new Executive Director, which leaves the position of Membership Director open. Judy Mertz was appointed as Interim Membership Director, having just completed an outstanding job as In-terim Executive Director keeping things well organized and running efficiently.

-  The DKG website has been revamped to be easier to find infor-mation and containing more extensive resources. Again there are two sections, one for the general public, and one for members only. There are sidelines for menu features, instead of “search” options, making it much easier to locate things. Of particular interest for you is the down-loadable “Orientation” and four part series “Reorientation” videos, found under “Resources” and then “Videos”. Check out other resources for chapter strengthening and revitalization.

Do you have your arrangements made to be present at the 2018 Inter-national Convention July 16 - 20th at J. W. Marriott Hotel, Austin, TX? The room reservation block opened January 2, 2018. Registration is on the website, www.dkg.org.

NEWS FLASH HERE ( comments in red are from the editor)

Thank you to all.

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Our B.C. Executive Board has allocated up to $5000 to be shared among those of us who attend the Convention in Austin. How is that for lending a hand??

 To date I have received one proposal for a new Canada Project. Canada Project Proposals are Due March 31, 2018 to give us time for all members to review the proposals to en-able reflection and informed decision making.

B.C. chapter members, can any of you think of a good new Canadian Pro-

posal? Let’s get something together to send to Joan Wolfe before March

31st.

Of note from the North West Regional is the fact that we were able to send

$4,524 to Nepal for our present Canadian Project.

Do you have a member who should be highlighted in the “Member Highlight”

feature on the DKG website? Bravo to Saskatchewan whose member

was highlighted recently. I know we have many outstanding members

across Canada and I encourage you to submit their profiles for all to get

to “meet” them as well

Please take some time to check out the new improved website and get con-nected .

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Joan Wolfe, second and third from front on right and Donna-Faye, third on the left

were the guests at South Vancouver Island’s December Celebration. We wish Joan well as she completes her term of Area Rep Canada and hands that posi-tion over to Betty Rose from Alberta.

Interview with Marilyn Rushton

#1. Hello Marilyn, in order to let the membership know who this amazing first vice-chair person is, I would like to ask you a few questions, is that alright with you?

Wow, yes, that will be fun.

#2. So, for starters what is your favourite colour?

It used to be hot pink, but now is purple.

#3. I get that considering your latest hair and fingernail colour. Do you have a favourite flower?

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Yes, red rose. Want to know why? On our wedding day my husband Ken brought me a dozen red roses and every an-niversary since he has done the same. ( We got married in 1975)

#4. May I ask how old you were when you became blind?

I was born at 28 weeks, in an incubator and then after high oxygen, not enough to help my underdeveloped eyes. Basi-cally blind from birth.

I grew up in a loving family with my mother and grandpar-ents. Imagine my mother’s surprise when with 8 month old I said a whole sentence and haven’t stopped since.

#5. Where did you do your schooling?

First I attended Jericho School for the Blind and Deaf here in Vancouver. Grade 11 and 12 I attended a regular school without an aide.

As music had always been part of our family life, ( I performed at age 11), it seemed natural for me to head to U.B.C. to take a degree in music. It was during my years of 1971 -1975 that I met Ken on U.B.C. campus.

#6 Further experiences?

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After we had our two sons, I was encouraged to become a school trustee which I did from 1990 to 1999. I attended U.B.C.again to get my Bachelor of Music Ed. and then continued to get my Masters in Special Education. In 2004 I became the District Resource Teacher.

#7 Did you use a white cane growing up?

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Yes, I did and now I am on my fifth Service Dog. This one is Misty. During my work and meeting times you will find Misty under or near my chair.

#8 What work do you do today?

My work is with blind and partly sighted children. It is so re-warding and fills me with joy.

My other joy comes in the form of our two grandsons, one lives in Montreal and is already 12 years old ( when he was younger he didn’t quite understand what blind meant, he took me to see his glow in the dark balls and that’s when he realized that my eyes really were different). The other grandson lives in Brussels and is only 13 months old. Ken and I will be visiting both families this year.

#9. Do you have some words of wisdom to leave us with today?

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Yes, live each day to the best of your ability so you can go to bed without regrets.

There you have it folks, our very own Marilyn and Misty

Words of Inspiration….found recentlyIf you want to walk

FAST walk alone

If you want to walk FAR

walk together (ed.)

April Sympo-sium 28th in Vancouver

International Convention Austin, TXJuly 16 -20