Tag: Staff recognition

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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

This year, we recognize and celebrate Reynato Tan for 25 years of service. Here’s what Facility Coordinator Qasim Ahmadi has to say about Rey:

Rey has worked with CNH for more than 25 years. Rey is very hardworking, kind, helpful, knowledgeable, and a great team player. He brings great ideas to the Custodian Team on how we can improve the health and safety of all staff. During the Facility Coordinator’s vacation, Rey has filled in as the Acting Facility Coordinator. He has done very well while covering for the Coordinator. Congratulations on this milestone, Rey!

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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

Raised in Burnaby BC, Ana’s journey into Early Childhood Education began at Douglas College in 1989. After completion of the program, Ana began work at St. Barnabas Daycare in New Westminster before coming to Collingwood in August 1996 to work in the Duke St. Preschool Program.

Ana spent many years welcoming families to Duke St, creating long-lasting relationships that brought siblings to the program year after year.

In 2003, Ana moved into a coordination role at Collingwood, overseeing the financial components of the child care department. Given Ana’s strength in organization and completing tasks, it’s a role that is invaluable to child care.

For everyone that knows Ana, (and she will agree) she likes straight talk. If you request something of her and it’s not appealing to her… she’s going to let you know! She is also known in the department for being a fashion icon and Ana is always the first to volunteer to organize a Christmas party.

Ana says she had stayed so long with CNH because it’s a great place to work and she was given the opportunities to grow and learn and that the organization is a loving, fair, inclusive environment. She says, “I love my job and I love coming here every day. Some days can be hard, but most all days are great. Collingwood has become my family, and childcare my life! My future plans are to do the best I can at the job I do and love every day!”

Her last 25 years has given her so many incredible memories that she truly can’t pick one. All of our staff professional development days, Christmas parties, social gatherings—all have different and beautiful memories for her, so it is almost impossible to pick one… although setting up for our first Christmas party at CNH and watching a certain staff member belt out Shania Twain in the multi- purpose room all by themselves is particularly memorable!

A passionate Croatian, Ana loves spending time outside with her tightly knit family—a husband of 29 years, three children, and a son-in-law.

Collingwood is very fortunate to have someone like her who cares so deeply about the organization. Thank you Ana, and many congratulations on this milestone!

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, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

Here’s what Information and Referral/Reception Coordinator Jenny Eng-Chan has to say about Teresa:

An interesting fact that I learned about Teresa over the years is that you can grab her attention by saying any one of the following 3 words—“party room, gym space, or meeting room.” As you may have guessed, she is in charge of our facility rentals. How was she conditioned this way? The story begins with Teresa, moving from Toronto to Vancouver to make her home in the Collingwood community. As she was walking by CNH, she was curious about this centre. Soon after, she enquired whether she could volunteer and was placed in Reception. She had started with volunteering one day a week and then it grew to 5 days a week! When a position opened up, she applied, and here we are 25 years later.

Teresa has a knack for business as she has a background in Commerce. She is the perfect team member to be looking after our facility rentals for CNH. Throughout the years, she has been occupying rooms with bookings at CNH and at the Annex. We have hosted many joyous birthdays, weddings, and baptisms that those people have returned to book again with Teresa for other celebrations. One time, I overheard Teresa say to a potential renter that was booking a bridal shower that they should have her wedding celebration at the Annex, and from a wedding celebration, that they should return for a baby shower, and yet again for baby’s 1st birthday! And some of them do!

Aside from her role as the Rental Clerk at CNH, she is a long-time member of the Health & Safety Committee, now known as the JOHS Committee. Members of this group ensure that CNH staff have a healthy and safe working environment. This past year has really stretched and tested this group as they work diligently to develop new protocols and guidelines to keep us safe.

Her service and dedication to her work over these years has continued to inspire growth and learning from those around her. Aside from the role and responsibilities at CNH, equally important is her individual qualities that she brings forth, which is her faith in people, her patience, her spirituality, and her forgiving nature. Some of those that work closely with her have mentioned that she is a pleasure to work with, devoted to helping people who are less fortunate, a really good listener, and like a sister that they never had.

Teresa has other interesting attributes that make her unique. She loves ketchup on almost EVERYTHING, and has a fondness for dogs.

There are many wonderful things that come to mind about Teresa, but the one that ties it up nicely is her philosophy of how to end the workday. She refers to the comic strip character Snoopy where he is laying on the rooftop of his dog house, gazing up at the fluffy clouds and happily reflecting, relaxing, and getting ready for the next day to do it all over again. We wish her many more of these moments.

Congratulations, Teresa, on 25 years with Collingwood!

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 Satinder Kaur Singh, Family Services Coordinator, for over 30 years of service.

Satinder has been a permanent fixture in the history of Family Place and is the longest-serving staff member at CNH. After arriving in Canada in the summer of 1990, Satinder came to CNH looking for childcare for her school-aged children. She ended up volunteering at reception then got hired to train as a facilitator for the Nobody’s Perfect parenting program and was amongst the first batch of trainees. She then became hired for the Family Place program and assistant teacher at the LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) program and organized a babysitting co-op, in addition to community dinners.

Satinder’s favourite memory of CNH is the ground laying ceremony of our present building at 5288 Joyce Street. She says she was very excited about the brand new building where her programs would have a permanent space under one roof as prior to that, the Family Place was running in the basement of Carleton Elementary school and the other programs were spread out in the community.

Over her 30 years in the program, Satinder has been a part of thousands of children and families’ lives. Multi-generations of families have returned to the program because of her. Her kind, warm and welcoming approach has ensured that the experiences families have at the Family Place at CNH are always fondly remembered and we know there are many, many families who hold Satinder dearly in their hearts.

What an amazing accomplishment to devote your career to providing quality care and programming to families from every walk of life.

Thank you, Satinder, and many congratulations on this milestone!