Category: Staff Highlights

Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and, for the first time in CNH’s history, 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

Ram started working at Collingwood Neighbourhood House in 1999 as a casual. She worked at various locations within Collingwood before becoming a permanent staff at Grenfell School Age Child Care in 2008, where she still is today! In 2009, Ram received her School Age Child Care certificate through Douglas College. Ram and her husband of 40 years have four children and four grandchildren.

You will often find Ram playing UNO, Go Fish, Candy Land or another game with the children. Her quiet, easy-going nature is welcomed by both the children in her care and her co-workers. Ram genuinely cares about the children in her care – whether laughing at their jokes, reminding them of rules while playing games, or helping them talk through conflicts that arise – and encourages the children to care as well.

Ram is an amazing human being, and we are blessed at Collingwood to have had her here for the last 20 years!

Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and, for the first time in CNH’s history, 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

It is safe to say that Lucinda Donaldson has impacted the Renfrew-Collingwood community with her popular gymnastics program since she started working at CNH in July 1999. That year, she transitioned from summer camps to afterschool classes in September. Now she teaches six classes per week, and runs gymnastics camps every summer.

She credits the CNH Recreation Coordinators throughout the years for giving her the opportunity to build her programs and she is thankful for the continued support.

Lucinda has always had great motivation and enthusiasm to grow her program and open new classes.

After 20 years, Collingwood has become an extension of her family. Lucinda has had the pleasure of teaching some fantastic children and worked with amazing people. Two of her current assistants were participants in gymnastics classes from an early age. Why has she stayed so long? She says, “I love the community that is Collingwood. The kids who walk in the door, and the ones who remain and the ones who come to visit me or come to talk to me on the street. That’s why I’ve stayed. Being in the gym is like being at home.”

Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and, for the first time in CNH’s history, 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

This year, we recognize and celebrate Alison Merton, Director of the Early Years, for 25 years of service.

Alison is an efficient woman: she grew up, was educated and met her husband in the same city, Preston, England. When her to-be husband decided to return to Canada (he had relocated temporarily to Preston to be near his mother, who was friends with Alison’s mother) Alison decided to move with him.

Trained and experienced as a Nursery Nurse (the British equivalent of a Child Care Worker), Alison landed in Canada in 1995 wondering how she would ever find work. Turned out her skills in efficiency worked yet again: a woman living across the hall from Alison’s mother-in-law happened to be looking for casual child care workers for CNH. Alison applied and within a week of landing in Canada, she had a job.

Within two months, Alison was hired permanently as a child care staff at CNH and two years later, she became the program’s manager. When she was just three years shy of working at CNH, Alison was promoted to Child Care Assistant Coordinator where she worked on human resources, program operations and financial management. By 2001 she was a Child Care Coordinator, adding enrolment to her list of responsibilities.

In 2018, Alison was appointed as Director of the Early Years Department. While growing her career at CNH, Alison and her husband Dave have also raised two children, Ross and Cerys, whose sporty talents led Alison and Dave to attend more soccer and basketball games per year than most people attend in a lifetime.

In looking back at her 25 years with CNH, Alison said one of the hardest challenges was moving away from her coordinator colleagues, Ana and Diana. For so many years they were a tight threesome, sharing one office and working very collegially and Alison found it tough to move away from them and into the Director’s office.

As a director, responding to COVID-19 has been one of the biggest challenges Alison has had to face but she said there have been other, day-to-day challenges she has faced from the moment she started in the role. She said learning to focus on finding a balance of what’s good for the individual (staff or participant) and the organization has been a learning curve. She also reflected on how, in her role as a director, she’s learned to take the time and reflect on why people are responding in particular ways to a situation: “I’m not so quick to judge,” she said. Highlights in her work at CNH include a CNH staff trip to Reggio Emilia, Italy to study the Reggio philosophy and approaches to child care as well as meeting, “amazing mentors, friends and leaders at CNH”. Best of all: “I’m making a difference in people’s lives.”

Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and, for the first time in CNH’s history, 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

This year, we recognize and celebrate Diana Taykandy, Operations Child Care Program Coordinator, for 25 years of service.

Diana was born and bred in East Vancouver. She attended Capilano College (now University) to study Early Childhood Education (ECE). In early 1995, Diana was sought out by a former director to be on the team that would bring more licensed childcare to the Renfrew Collingwood community-offsite and then the programs at the Main House on Joyce Street just in 1995 alone… And there has been a steady stream of more programs over the years! Her fondest memory at Collingwood was overseeing the opening of Sarah House and Duke St and how rewarding that was.

Diana’s role as a coordinator is to oversee the operational pieces of the programs, to ensure the delivery of quality experiences in our child care programs. One of Diana’s many strengths is working with staff to create plans for children who require extra support in the programs. Her education and experience in special needs care, enables her to think outside the box and plan for children’s success no matter their ability. We are fortunate to have this expertise on the child care team and many children over the years have benefitted from this.

She has always given her time willingly to CNH – participating in the Health and Safety Committee, arranging countless staff professional development opportunities and helping out with other CNH events. Her passion for quality childcare never wanes and after a trip to Reggio Emilia in 2018 for professional development, Diana was a great resource in supporting staff to implement ideas and changes to programs to ensure CNH continues to be highly regarded in the field of Early Childhood Education. Her ability to speak Italian was also most helpful!

Diana puts her longevity at CNH down to the people she works with and notes that the community is special and CNH provided her with flexibility while raising her family.

Her commitment to CNH and the ECE profession is truly commendable. Thank you, Diana, for your many years of service and congratulations!