Northerners Represent at Limestone Board Awards

By Jeff Green

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Back Row: Cathy Goodfellow, Pat Dowdall, Barry O'Connor, Heather White, Dianne Lake Front Row: Mrs. McLeod, Pam Woods

Ann Goodfellow, by now a seasoned chair of the Limestone District School Board, pulled her gavel closer to the front of the desk at the start of last week's monthly board meeting in Kingston.

“It's nice to see so many visitors here, but that bunch at the back of the room look like trouble to me,” she said as she pounded the gavel to start the meeting.

The “bunch at the back” was a group of staff and family members from the Sharbot Lake public and high schools and Clarendon Central PS in Plevna, who all turned out to celebrate the fact that many of their own were set to win awards of excellence for years of service.

Six individuals received Barry O’Connor Excellence in Support Staff awards and two received J.C. MaLeod Excellence in Teaching awards. Of the eight recipients, five are well known in “the north”.

Pam Woods, grade one teacher at Sharbot Lake Public School, was one of the McLeod winners, and Pat Dowdall and Dianne Lake from Sharbot Lake High School, Heather White from Clarendon Central, and Cathy Goodfellow, who works in many schools from her base in Tichborne, all received Barry O'Connor awards.

Pam Woods was the first recipient.

Pam has been the mainstay of the teaching staff at Sharbot Lake Public School, helping grade one students adjust to learning and listening.

Pam demonstrated the sense of fun she brings to the classroom when she stopped her remarks to pull a banana out of her purse and proceeded to talk to her mother on the phone.

It was a way for her to show off her acting skills, à la Bob Newhart's famous one-way phone skit, but more importantly it gave her the opportunity to thank her mother, who could not be with her for the ceremony.

Heather White received the Barry O'Connor award in the Custodial/Maintenance category, in recognition of her unique role in keeping Clarendon Central, the board's most rural school, up and running through power failures, snow storms, and even wildlife invasions. Over the years, Heather has dealt with mice, snakes, muskrats, mangy foxes, hummingbirds, and the occasional black bear. A former student of the school, Heather has filled in at times as an educational assistant and office manager. She is also the local librarian (when the library is open), a local historian, and someone who takes an active role in school activities. She has helped to keep Clarendon Central vital.

Cathy Goodfellow has worked as a Special Education Assistant in the north, and in Kingston, since 1990. She was recognised for her ability to further the education of some of the most vulnerable students in the region, and for how well she works with speech pathologists and other professionals in helping her students progress.

Cathy's extra-curricular activities, which are numerous, were also mentioned. Her most recent effort was co-ordinating a fundraising golf marathon by her son Edward and his friend Andrew Fazackerly at Rivendell, which raised $15,000 ($135,000 after provincial matching) for the Eastern Ontario Cancer Centre. The event was initiated in memory of Jessie Arthur, a student at Perth Road Public School, who succumbed to leukemia last March.

The final two awards of the night were given in tandem to Pat Dowdall and Dianne Lake of Sharbot Lake High School. Pat has been the office manager at the school since 1985, and Dianne has been running the cafeteria since 1981. They have been central to the life of the school for the past 25 years.

Pat had been working for the school board for five years when she assumed the office manager's position. In her first year as office manager, she worked with Barry O'Connor, who later went on to become director of education at the board and took special pleasure in presenting his namesake award to Pat. He recalled working with Pat in 1985. “We were both flying by the seat of our pants back then, but we got through it.”

In addition to ensuring the smooth operation of the school and helping train the principals and vice principals who have passed through the school, Pat has been involved in organizing every prom, commencement ceremony, and staff retirement at the school since the mid-eighties.

Dianne Lake was described in the citation for her award as “far more than a cafeteria supervisor. She has become the soup of the school.”

A rural school is crucial to the surrounding community, and it is in part through Dianne's efforts that SLHS is also home to the North Frontenac Little Theatre and the Lions Club’s annual productions.

The 40th, 50th, and the recent 60th anniversary celebrations at the school all came together in large part due to Dianne's work. As the citation said, “Basically any time the community is looking to be fed at an event, they look to Dianne to get the job done.”

Both Dianne and Pat said that receiving the award together was fitting since they have been such good friends and colleagues over the years, and they will both be retiring next June.