Napanee

 

The Napanee branch of the RWTO has 34 active members and three associate members. We welcome all retired women teachers living in our area to join us. For more information contact Beryl Jacka, president, at bjacka@sympatico.ca.

The main charity Napanee Branch conducts is Tales for Tots We began in 2005 to provide every newborn in Lennox and Addington County with a kit of early learning materials. Each kit contained two board books suitable for infants and toddlers, a CD of music, a booklet of songs and finger plays and various pamphlets promoting early literacy skills. These kits have been packaged by our members after our meetings and delivered by Kingston, Frontenac Lennox and Addington public health nurses. Each baby born in Lennox and Addington County receives one of these bags of beginner books and music to help give them a good start in listening and talking and singing. Our hope is that by providing these early learning kits to new mothers, children who might not otherwise be exposed to reading materials before they enter kindergarten will now have that opportunity. To date 2193 kits have been distributed and 75 kits were assembled at the August ’21 meeting to meet ongoing needs. Further production of kits has  been assured as we have just purchased 250 new bags and have a bank balance to supply new books.

During the early pandemic we provided a Christmas remembrance personally to each member. The gift bags contained a mask, a tea bag, chocolate of course, a candy cane, a jar of homemade jam and Christmas serviettes. A letter wishing everyone a safe and joyous Christmas was included and the organizers were very gratified by the way these gifts were received.

As rules around assembly have loosened we have had several in person meetings, the last of which was held in the hall of St. Mary Magdelene church in Napanee. As is the case with most meetings of people our age, the meetings often include food. Recently we had a luncheon meeting at the church mentioned above that was catered by Elena’s Cafe in Napanee. At that meeting, Maria Sebelsky of Napanee updated us from a very personal level on the situation in Ukraine. Maria has lived in Canada since she was six and came here as a Ukrainian refugee with her family in1949. She represented the Ukraine Canada Social Services organization which for many years has delivered aid to the Ukraine and continues to do so. Many members took advantage of the opportunity to make a donation to this organization as they have wondered how they could help the people of what is now a war torn country

Our organization also provides support for  local services and groups such as Greater Napanee Artists’ Association, Morningstar Mission, the local Hospice group, the L and A County Hospital Foundation and Seniors Outreach Services

Our meetings are always genial, pleasant occasions that leave us feeling uplifted, useful and engaged. Please check this site for information about our upcoming events and plan to join us.

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Members of the Napanee branch of RWTO have been invited to attend the spring meeting of the Kingston Branch of RWTO at:

The Home of Betty Jean Kippen at 27 Frink Ave. in Amerstview on Wed. June 1 (rain date June 2) at 12:30pm

If you are reading this for the first time and are a retired teacher living in the Napanee area please contact our president , Beryl Jacka at bjacka@sympatico.ca for info and directions. Hope to see lots of our members out to this event.

RWTO NAPANEE BRANCH EXECUTIVE 2022-2023

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