Retired women teachers fill welcome kits

A group of retired teachers in Niagara have enthusiastically embarked on a project to help farm workers as they arrive in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Melanie Kelch, vice-president of the St. Catharines branch of Retired Women Teachers of Ontario (RWTO), and also a St. Davids resident, says members decided, as one of their outreach projects, to fill welcome bags that are distributed through the Niagara Workers Welcome organization.

Tuesday afternoon, 75 brightly coloured green bags, filled with all sorts of necessities and goodies for the men and women as they arrive to work on local farms, were delivered to The Farm Workers Hub at Cornerstone Church, filled by retired women teachers. 

“Our motto is caring and sharing, and it’s not just about each other, it’s about other communities,” she says.

Kelch taught for 30 years, mostly elementary schools, in many different communities, all over Ontario. When she and her husband settled in St. Davids, after years of moving about, living in big cities and small communities — she and her husband both preferred a smaller community for their retirement — she began to learn about the offshore workers who are so important to this community.

She read the articles Jane Andres writes for the NOTL Local, and she heard her speak at a Newcomers Club meeting. That piqued her interest, and made her want to get involved to help in some way. When she heard about the welcome kits, she took that idea to her group of retired teachers, and they were quick and eager to come onboard.

At a meeting just before Christmas, when the group was able to meet in person, she was able to distribute the bags, and recently, the women who had filled them dropped them off so she and another member of the group could get them to the hub in Virgil.

The retired teachers organization has an interesting history, starting out in the mid-50s with a small group of women in Toronto known as the Rendezvous Club.

At the time it was formed, its purpose was to persuade the Ontario government to raise the level of pensions for retired women teachers to the same level as their male counterparts — women’s pensions in the ’50s were not even adequate, says Kelch.

For years, the Toronto women met with government officials to lobby for improved pensions, until they realized they could present a stronger case if they brought women throughout the province onboard, and many new branches were formed, becoming the Ontario Association of Superannuated Women Teachers.

That eventually gave rise to the Retired Teachers of Ontario, representing both men and women, with the Retired Women Teachers of Ontario continuing to exist to represent the special interests and well-being of retired women teachers.

“There are still women who like to hang out with other women who were teachers,” says Kelch. “There are groups all over Ontario, and five branches just in the Niagara Region.”

Her branch really liked the idea of helping offshore workers, she adds. “It connects us to an international community. And they’re coming more to the forefront of our community. People are starting to better understand the importance of the work they do. It feels humbling to be able to do something for this group of people.”

They also like that there are more and more women who come to Niagara to work on local farms, she says. 

“We’re starting to see more women, but we get the feeling that the public is not as aware of them, and it’s important for us to see them recognized as well.”

Kelch says the more she learned about the offshore workers, the more she wanted to do something to help, and she was very pleasantly surprised by the response she received from her group when she shared what she learned.

“This project turned out to be bigger than I thought it would be,” she says. “As teachers we always want to educate others. Once a teacher always a teacher.”

And teachers are people who are caring, giving and generous, she says — they are used to giving their time to help their students in need, and often spent their own money on classroom supplies to benefit their children.

“The caring and sharing in our motto, that doesn’t stop when we retire.”