Chair Message
Hello all and welcome back to the routine of fall, school, new beginnings and the change of season. We have been fortunate to have had a real summer to enjoy this year.
Life in Manor Park has been busy. We ran an extended soccer season this year which I think was well received by the community, added another competitive U15 team to our roster which did extremely well, put on another Movie night in the Park thanks to Bernie Horton and the MPCC staff and had fabulous summer camps with outstanding instructors! I would like to personally thank our summer staff who ensured our kids had fun, were safe and got do try and do really cool things!!!
The Park Playschool has added a morning Kindergarten Companion Program to service families not able to get their kids in morning classes at our local schools and continues to provide the Playschool in the morning for children 2½ to 4 years of age. Both our teachers Christine and Joanna are returning and it promises to be another great year. Our popular Kids Club has now added a Homework Program which is overseen by teacher Christine.
Darren Fournier, our Program Director, has been busy organizing sports activities for the kids for the fall and winter sessions. On tap; the popular indoor soccer will return as well as Basketball and a host of other fun things.
This is my last message as Chair (at least for a while) as I have stepped down in order to accommodate a busier family and work schedule as well as devote more of my volunteer time to the School Council at Le Trillium. One could say I had a bit too much on my plate! Penny Thompson has agreed, as vice chair, to step in and we hold the reigns for the time being. I will continue to participate on the board as it is a great group of neighbours but will take a less active role.
I would like to thank all those who have supported me in this capacity over all the years that I have been active: firstly, Kim Colpman (again), who really helped "drive" the process of the reorganization of the MPCC, to Andrea Poole who has always taken whatever role she has held with so much dedication and countless hours, to Deena Ryan (whose "fault" it is I got involved in the first place), to Andy Misener who has acted as our treasurer for the last 2 years and who continues to take on that role, to Penny Thompson who, despite still not felling 100%, has agreed to step up as Chair and relieve me, to Chris Henderson who worked on re-writing our Bylaws and will hopefully tweak them post re-org and get them approved, to Suzanne Reeves who chaired the council with a skilled hand and is now our Ombudsperson, to Andra Waterfield who has been active in the Playschool committee and keeping things on track, to Richard Arnaud who has kindly translated many flyers for us for distribution to the local francophone schools and for his words of wisdom and to all my other friends and neighbours who have drifted in and out of the organization I thank you.
As well, I would like to acknowledge Darren Fournier who has become such an entrenched part of our community: at Manor Park School, at the park with the kids and playing sports with "the guys", you have always gone above and beyond! Thank you as well to Lana Burpee who wrote all of the new MPCC policies and procedures to bring our organization to the next level.
I would like to welcome new board members to the MPCC: Kate James and Julia Darragh. We appreciate your coming on board. Thanks to all who have supported me. I look forward to continued service. Have a great autumn. We'll be seeing each other soon!
Natalie Belovic,
MPCC Past President
(Article courtesy of the Manor Park Chronicle - Sept. 2005)