Announcements

  • On Friday, November 29 there is a card party hosted by John Mokryke. It will take place at 1038 Beach Boulevard at 6:00pm. Please bring an appetizer and your own drinks.

  • The pancake breakfast will take place on December 18. The club is still accepting cash donations as well as books for the children's gift bags.

  • The General Assembly will take place on December 4. If you would like to nominate someone then please notify Shikha.

  • On Thursday, November 28 the McMaster Rotaract club will be holding their annual Movember event at Stonewalls at 8:00pm. Please support them by attending.

  • The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers to help run their kettles.

  • The club now officially has a storage cabinet.

  • The music program that was presented to the club this past month has received a check from the small donations committee. This has gone towards buying new books for their students.

 

Guest Speaker:

Last week instead of inviting a guest speaker to talk to the club, we had a classification talk with Sharon Levy-Cohen. Sharon spoke about beginning her career in occupational therapy, where she learned that she liked helping people. After having children, Sharon decided to change fields and go into teaching.

“I thought teaching would be a good job,” Sharon said. “It is rewarding to help children grow.” Sharon enjoyed the job duties as well as the salary and benefits. She learned that teaching came with its own challenges, such as sacrificing much of one's evening to marking and planning. “It's hard to deal with large classes and a lack of resources,” she said. Teachers are constantly begin evaluated, as well, creating another layer of stress on the job.

“The best teachers are the ones who think outside the box,” Sharon told us. She stressed the importance in remembering that teachers are not teaching to empty seats, but to individual children with individual needs. If she were to give advice to someone considering a career in teaching, she would tell them to be passionate about what they do, and invest as much time as possible in volunteering and working with children.

After retirement, Sharon looked for things to become involved with. She knew that she wanted to enrich the culture of young children and created the annual Imagine in the Park festival to help this dream come true. This past year, Rotary has supported Imagine in the Park through donations and volunteer work. Together we work together with members like Sharon to give our children a better future.

 
Sponsors