Sandy Howe’s Post

As I wrap-up my term as the President of the Distress Centre Niagara Board of Directors, I’m truly amazed by the work of this incredible community organization! The small team of staff with the leadership of Stacy Terry and the amazing Board have been a pleasure to work with, get to know as people, and combine our passion and skills to ensure DCN is always improving, evolving to meet the needs of the community and doing our best! The dozens of dedicated volunteers also completely amaze me. Having provided phone and text support, as well as the Access Line regularly, this year we also provided support to the Canadian launch of 9-8-8, which was incredible to see happen! The volume of folks in need of support or a listening ear in our community has been steadily increasing, especially as we experience life during/post pandemic, and this team of volunteers answer thousands and thousands of calls and texts…every single one, every single time. Your contributions are always appreciated and I am grateful for each of you in our community! The support of the United Way Niagara, additional fundraising, and those who think of DCN for training, go a long way to ensure the Distress Centre can continue to support our local community. As I sign-off on my time as President, I am completely honoured to have had the opportunity to serve the organization and community in this capacity. Thank you to everyone who has provided support, taught me new things, and collaborated so that we could do our very best together. New ideas, innovations, twists and turns will continue and I look forward to this journey ahead with all of you as your Past-President. #distresscentre #accessline #mentalhealthmatters #service #supportlocal #volunteer #communityinvolvement

This. 🧡

Looking forward to following this and learning 🧡

Happy start-of-term to all those in post-secondary education getting classes underway this week, as we are today at Brock University! When I was completing my masters research, which was focused on decolonizating experiential education on university campuses with an amazing group of Indigenous collaborators, there were conversations about integrating Indigneous ceremony in meaningful ways on our campuses. We often have an opening of term kick-off with speeches and hype to build energy for the big lift that the start of term takes, which is great, but one of the ideas that surfaced was around having a Thanksgiving address, or the “words that come before all else” offered at the start of term. This would allow us to get underway with ceremony, but also to offer these words and really ground ourselves in gratitude. It would also, most of all, help us on the path to reconciliation by creating or strengthening a connection to the land and everything we are in relation to/with every day. This morning when I came in bright and early, as I do for the start of term, to leave tokens of my appreciation for my team members at their work stations before they arrive, I was so honoured to receive this surprise gift from an amazing leader and Indigenous mentor I have the pleasure of working with every day, Colton Clause. I won’t lie, I had an ugly cry and have been reflecting on my approach to my work heavily today (and couldn’t help but crack the book to sneak in a couple of pages)! As we serve our way through these next few weeks and months, I am thinking of all those serving students and families, faculty and colleagues, as well as community through the joyful and also tough conversations that are happening all around us. I am no expert, but may we do our very best, approach our work and lives with a grateful heart, and know that everything we do has a ripple effect - big or small - far beyond what we can see. We have the chance to make a little bit of magic happen based on our approach! #Indigeniusknowledge #highered #startofterm #brocku #backtoschool #thanksgivingaddress #gratitude #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #magic

What an amazing couple of weeks as St. Catharines hosted World Rowing! 🚣 U19, U24 and Senior championships truly brought the world together right here with athletes village hosted at Brock University and the races at Henley Island on Martindale Pond! Seeing our campus full of people again was a great warm-up to September and to soak in the energy at the event itself behind-the-scenes with the athletes and officials was amazing! My role was largely to support the athletes, coaches and managers daily as we fueled everyone for lunch, and then serve the officials during shifts in the Regatta Office - what an incredible volunteer experience and a new way to use and build many of the skills I most enjoy (people, problem solving, bringing a peacefulness at a stressful time, and even addressing some rule breaking like my good ol’ days and providing education)! Google translate helped us through, but there is also a natural, human way of communicating even with languages between us. New friends were made globally, old friendships were reunited, and all in the spirit of creating a positive, kind and supportive games for all! This also took a massive village to pull off as well! Many thanks to Michelle Kerr, CFRE and her incredible leadership and management of very complex needs; @Linda Dirks, an incredible coordinator and motivator, board members locally and globally, officials, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of athletes. I can say this was a great success (barring a couple of days of weather we could not control, but scheduled around!) and not something I will soon forget! 🎉

What a cool job! Re-posting for reach!

I’ve got my tickets! 🎟️ It would be great to see Brock colleagues, current and past, alum and those with a connection to an amazing school back for this signature event! Please join us as we launch the celebration of 60 smashing years! 🎉🥂 #brocku #sixtyyears #badgerpride

I completely loved my time in this AD Experiential role and can’t help but want the very best for this team! 🎉

Brock University hosted its 115th Convocation this week and I am always honoured to be part of an incredible team that pours themselves into the planning and details for months leading up to the big week! 🎉 I couldn’t be happier for our 3200 new graduates and their friends and loved ones, or more grateful for the HUNDREDS of people who make this event possible on the front lines and so many behind the scenes! 💕🎓 These include staff teams and volunteers, alumni and Board member, faculty who celebrate their students, community partners and vendors whose services put the finishing touches on the week, and of course our President Lesley Rigg and Chancellor Hilary Pearson, CM who so authentically bring the 9 ceremonies to life! We conferred three honorary doctorates this week, to Fergie Jenkins, Tricia Pokorny and Maude Barlow, and heard from award-winning faculty members including Shannon Kerwin among others, who each offered inspiring messages to our grads as they head out into the world! The stories that emerge throughout the week with our students and what they have persevered through are also completely amazing! This is something that takes months to pull together, and the facilitation takes pure adrenaline for the week! I’m overwhelmed with gratitude when I think of Tricia MacDonald, Sarah Sager (MacMillan), Amelia McIntyre and our Records team for the hours on end that goes into preparing, and the talented folks including Geraldine Jones, Matthew Melnyk, Tania Melnyk, Christina Bosilo, Pauline Dawson, Courtney Keogh, Carly Dugo, Liam Nielsen and his team who consistently show up to make the week itself fantastic! Until next time, stay proud Badgers…the future is bright! #BrockUniversity #Convocation2024 #badgerpride #brockugrads

Fantastic role and team!