Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
Last year, we recognize and celebrate the following staff for 10 and 5 years of service to Collingwood Neighbourhood House:
Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
Last year, we recognize and celebrate Candice Li for 15 years of service to Collingwood Neighbourhood House. Here’s what Candice’s supervisor, Jenny Eng-Chan, had to say about her:
“Candice is one of our vibrant and boldest members of the Reception team. You can hear and feel her presence even before seeing her! I mean this in a positive way. She is confident and has that one-of-a-kind personality. This was first evident upon interviewing her. I recall that entire day was strange—the other interviewer had to cancel at the last minute and the room that I had booked to do the interview went into overtime. I was scrambling to find a place to conduct the job interview. There were limited choices: it was either the women’s changing room or the main kitchen! Obviously, I picked the kitchen. Candice was adaptable to the situation and continued to be unfazed at the noise and the interruptions. And this quality made her a perfect addition to the Reception Team.”
“Along the way, I have learned that Candice had an aptitude for configuring programs and she loves to use her analytical CSI skills. When it was time for us to transition from our old-fashioned way of receiving and preparing payments received at the front desk to a more modern Point of Sales system, Candice was right there tackling the job. She was one of the key players involved in implementing our very first Point of Sales system, and if that wasn’t enough, she took part in building the second one, which we are using today. Candice constantly thanks me for her white hairs but I had promised Candice that there will not be a third time for at least another 10 years and by then, either we would have all retired or our hair would have naturally turned white, so I can’t be blamed for this.”
“Besides her work, Candice has this talent of being able to transform almost any fruit into her “special juices,” also known as wine. She loves to test out the potency of her creations on her reception teammates and this is a part of the reason of why the Front Desk staff is always so pleasant. On that note, my wish for Candice is for her to continue perfecting her juice-making skills and testing them out on us. Cheers to many more 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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
This year, we recognize and celebrate Maria Nombrado for 25 years of service. Here’s what Flamingo Xie, Financial Controller, had to say about Maria:
“25 years is a quarter of a century, half of Maria’s lifetime. Her glasses are getting thick and she might need anti-wrinkle cream in the future, but she still looks great in her colleagues’ eyes.
“Maria started work as an office volunteer and a paid computer lab volunteer at CNH. After working in our administration and accounting office, she landed her current role as Accounting Manager. I asked her the reason she has worked at CNH for 25 years. This is what she said:
1. Commendations for her hard work. Maria said she used to be very emotional when her former supervisor verbally appreciated her work. Other Directors at CNH also appreciated Maria’s dedication. Those recognitions boost Maria’s self-esteem and confidence.
2. Her family. Secondly, Maria’s said the love and support of her husband and her two sons, Skye and Edrick, are what keep her going.
3. What CNH stands for. The last one is because of our organization. Maria feels we offer excellent services in the community and excellent recreation programs for all ages. She also appreciates the environment at CNH which she describes as multicultural and family-oriented. As a staff member, she also feels CNH fosters positive employer-employee relationships.
“Maria said she is happy to say that CNH is where she would like to work until her hair turns gray. Thank you, Maria, for 25 years of hard work and dedication. Thank you for making each day of work something we can all be proud of.”
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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
This year, we recognize and celebrate Qasim Ahmadi for 25 years of service. Here’s what Kulwant Kaur, Director of Operations, had to say about Qasim:
“Qasim started working at CNH as a Building Services Worker in 1997. After only a couple of months, he was promoted to the position of Facility Coordinator. His electrical engineering education, previous work experience and extensive experience in facility management has helped him in overseeing CNH’s buildings – five stand-alone sites and six child care programs at local schools. Qasim has many skills! His attention to detail, meeting all deadlines and ensuring all work requests are completed in a timely manner, are much appreciated.
“Qasim has also always tried his best to save CNH money by doing a lot of the minor repairs and maintenance work himself. He only calls an external contractor for major repairs. Qasim oversees 11 custodians and he is a very generous and compassionate supervisor. Further, every year without fail, he handwrites Christmas cards for the CNH staff. And when we were able to hold potlucks before COVID, he brought the most delicious rice, Kabuli pulao, to staff meetings. He also enjoys running around Central Park and having BBQs with family and friends. He also loves to go sightseeing with his wife Lilah of 30 years.
“Qasim is a dedicated and hardworking staff member, and is truly an asset to the Operations team and CNH. It’s been a pleasure to work with him! Congratulations and thank you, Qasim.”
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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
This year, we recognize and celebrate Nelly Yep for 25 years of service. Here’s what Jenny Eng-Chan, Reception Manager, had to say about Nelly:
“Nelly is our internal booking clerk who keeps CNH’s Main House and Annex running smoothly by scheduling programs and events in their correct timeslot. It is similar to playing Tetris on the computer. What a fun job you would think but this wasn’t always the case as the internal booking process has come a long way over the last 25 years. Back in the ‘old’ days, booking was comprised of a stack of photocopied pages bound together by metal prongs and protected by a plastic blue cover page. Hence, we named it the blue book or our CNH bible. It felt like Nelly was book-binding every six months. Nelly would enter the bookings manually into each day; on each page and sometimes this required a lot of cutting and pasting. Fast forward to today and thank goodness for technology, the blue book has retired.
“Over the years, Reception has gone through changes. Our furniture has been replaced and the blue book is gone but there is always one constant: Nelly’s attitude toward her work and her co-workers. She has continued to be a helpful and kind person who will always greet you by name. As I haven’t seen her grumpy or negative, I often wondered what the underlying secret to her being so happy and pleasant is. So, I decided to do some detective work and look for clues in her daily rituals. The first thing that I noticed was that she doesn’t eat breakfast and that she loves her veggies but I didn’t think this was ‘the secret.’ There must be something that she does that other people don’t! Then the ‘aha’ moment struck. It must be the two shots of concentrated lemon juice that she always requests at the tea shop when she orders her drink (and she requests this with no sugar). The saying ‘you are what you eat’ doesn’t apply here because Nelly definitely does not exhibit sourness. Rather, she has a sweet and bright disposition.
“So that’s her secret I suppose? If that is the case, the morning coffee may have to switch out for Nelly’s lemon elixir. Congratulations, Nelly, on your 25th anniversary of playing room-booking Tetris at CNH!”
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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
This year, we recognize and celebrate Sabrina Bantog for 25 years of service. Here’s what Alison Merton, Director of the Early Years, had to say about Sabrina:
“I have been fortunate to work with Sabrina since 1996.
“Sabrina grew up in Vancouver. She attended Langara College to study Early Childhood Education. In 1996, Sabrina began working in Family Place at CNH and did casual work in child care before securing a position in the infant and toddler program. She then quickly moved into management roles within the child care department first in Kindercare, Collingwood Early Learning and Care Centre, and then she became the manager that opened the Terry Tayler Early Learning and Care Centre in the fall of 2012.
“Sabrina’s current role is as a Child Care Manager which requires her to deal with all human resources (HR)-related tasks for the child care staff team, which is quite the task given the amount of staff we have.
“We are so extremely fortunate to have Sabrina’s expertise in HR at CNH. She is kind, compassionate, and always goes above and beyond. She is very well respected by everyone. Sabrina puts the ‘human’ in human resources! She has represented CNH at CUPE and also at many Early Childhood Educator events. She continuously seeks out professional development opportunities and is currently doing courses in HR at BCIT.
“Sabrina says CNH is her home. She felt like she grew up at Collingwood, making many relationships. She has always felt supported and has had many opportunities to learn, grow and advance. She says CNH feels like family. This is likely because her husband Jaime also once worked at CNH and both her children, Alissa and Kyle, attended our child care programs! It’s not unusual to see Kyle here in Friday’s youth program or to see Sabrina’s mom hanging out in the seniors’ programs.
“Sabrina says there are many memories that make her smile, reflecting back. What stands out the most is the trip to Italy to visit the Reggio Emilia programs at their source with her peers and the management team. She will be forever grateful for that opportunity, definitely not something she would have been able to do on her own and it was most meaningful to be able to do this with colleagues.
“She would like to acknowledge all of the wonderful people she has had the pleasure of getting to know over the years. Her continued commitment to CNH, the Early Years department and the Early Childhood Education profession is outstanding. Thank you, Sabrina, for your many years of service and congratulations.”
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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.
This year, we recognize and celebrate Maliha Hassan for 25 years of service. Here’s what Diana Taykandy, Operations Child Care Program Coordinator, had to say about Maliha:
“Maliha Hassan is celebrating her 25 years as a child care staff for CNH. She began her journey on March 19, 1997, when I hired her for a maternity leave position at Sarah House Early Learning and Care Centre. Not too long after she started working, a permanent position became available at Duke Street Early Learning and Care Centre, where she was hired. Maliha worked for four years at Duke Street and when a posting came out for a position at Sarah House, she decided to apply for the position and was hired back at Sarah House. Maliha has been there ever since!
“Maliha truly loves working for Collingwood. She enjoys her Sarah House co-workers, families, and especially the children. She truly loves the children! She has always been a huge support to the program and has also worked there as a manager temporarily. Thank you for always thinking of the program’s needs and always being willing to help in whatever way you can.
“Collingwood means the world to Maliha. She always refers to her workplace as a second home. She couldn’t imagine working anywhere else. She has such a strong, unexplained connection to Collingwood, always letting us know that CNH is her heart.
“Maliha’s favorite work-related memory is actually how she came to name her second child. When Maliha had to go on maternity leave, she promised the manager and staff that she would return, and as a sincere gesture and of course, love for the program, she named her daughter Sarah.
“Maliha fills her days with her passion for shopping, hiking, biking, and traveling. She loves to entertain her co-workers in her home, including celebrations with food and music, and just making connections.
“Staff that know her well and who have worked with her for many years will all tell you that Maliha is kind, generous, patient, and always willing to support you. She is so wonderful with the children and their families and is always making them feel welcome. Maliha has a special way of making anyone who comes into contact with her feel special.
“I know that I have always felt her warmth whenever I have visited her in the program. Thank you for always making me feel welcome.
“Collingwood is very fortunate to have someone like her who cares so deeply about the organization. Thank you Maliha, and many congratulations on this milestone!”
