NFCS 40th Anniversary AGM

Jeff Green | Oct 01, 2015

Northern Frontenac Community Services took a look backwards at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) last week.

Since the agency, which provides services for children, youth, families, and the elderly, is 40 years old, former staff and board members came out to mark the occasion. Marcel Giroux, who was involved in the founding of the agency in the early 1970s, talked about the early days in the basement of the manse of the Anglican Church, pumping out a newsletter on a Gestetner, and holding public meeting after public meeting in order to get some services established. Susan Ablack, who worked for and with NFCS from 1986 until she retired as the rural worker for Providence Care early this year, spoke about the way NFCS developed and maintained a caring service model, and survived attempts by the government of the day to shut it down.

Frances Smith talked about the early 1980s, when she was the welfare officer for Oso township and decided it was unwise to continue doing that job out of her own home when a client made a not so veiled threat to her one day.

“They found a corner of the basement for me at NFCS, and its was great to have people around who were working with the community, just as we were at the township,” she said

Marcie Webster, who has worked as a playgroup leader and Aboriginal programs co-ordinator since the early 1990s, spoke about some of the changes that have come about in Children's Services.

“I remember a pickup truck carrying two or three families coming to playgroup one time. There were kids and parents in the front, in the cab, and in the back of the truck there were more. That shows how things have changed,” she said.

Aside from the reminiscences, the AGM business was conducted, but before that the annual Life Membership Awards were given out, this year to Vern and June Crawford. The Crawfords are long time volunteers with NFCS, delivering Meals on Wheels to the most remote households in the region.

“Vern had a knee replacement last year,” said Community Support Services Co-ordinator Catherine Tysick, “and I had to deliver meals for a few weeks. I kept calling back to the office to say I was lost and they said to keep driving. When the Crawfords were coming back I told the clients not to worry; they would start getting hot meals again the following week.”

This was the first AGM for the new NFCS Executive Director Louise Moody. She said she was honoured to be working in an agency with such a history and thanked the staff and board for their support in her first few months on the job.