On July 14 some 70 permit teachers, guests and former students gathered at the Viscount Gort Hotel in Winnipeg for the 12th Annual Dr. Louisa Loeb Permit Teachers of Manitoba Reunion.
Building on last year’s success, the theme of this reunion was once again, “Teachers and Students Together Again” and former students of permit teachers were invited to attend. This year’s 40 percent increase in attendance of both teachers and students over last year was a result of some increased publicity efforts utilizing many rural and urban newspapers.
The Reunion got underway with Committee Chair, Theresa Antoniuk, calling the attendees to order using an old fashioned antique school hand bell which I am sure brought back many memories to those attending. Committee member, Wally Stoyko, introduced a rather humourous “Ice Breaker” activity involving alphabetical listing of body parts which indeed did get everybody mixing and “breaking the ice”.
Reunion Chairperson, Theresa Antoniuk welcomed all in attendance and gave a brief outline of the day’s agenda.
Teachers who had former students in attendance (nine in total) were given an opportunity to introduce them.
Committee Member, Ed Arndt, introduced the guest speaker, Dr. Gordon Goldsborough, the Webmaster & Journal Editor at the Manitoba Historical Society, university professor and author of a number of books and many articles. He has catalogued/photographed thousands of historic sites (old schools, bridges, elevators, etc.) throughout Manitoba. His presentation included slides of only a very minute part of his extensive research and photograph collection. This proved to be of great interest to his audience. Wally Stoyko thanked the guest speaker and presented him with a “rare” copy of Dr. Louisa Loeb’s book, “Manitoba Permit Teachers of World War II”.
Karen Boughton paid a touching tribute to the role of permit teachers in her “In Memoriam” presentation.
Following a delicious lunch, prepared and served by the staff of the Viscount Gort, Committee Member Bill Badiuk, introduced us to Marlowe Cochrane (Marlowe’s Magic), an illusionist from the Fisher River First Nation. He certainly impressed this writer with his “amazing magic tricks” One of the most frequently uttered comments I overheard from my colleagues was, “How did he do that?”
Several attendees were recognized with a small gift for various reasons; Rose Podruski from Winnipeg, for being the first to register for this reunion and Sylvia Halls from Reston for travelling the farthest to attend.
An “Open Mic” session, moderated by Mel Bodnarus, provided an opportunity for former teachers and their students to share some humourous, intriguing stories of their experiences.
Thanks to many generous donors, a number of door prizes were given away during the day.
A new Reunion Committee was formed to plan the 2017. This committee includes, but may not necessarily be limited to, Andy & Edith Alexiuk, Theresa Antoniuk, Ed Arndt, Bill Badiuk, Mel Bodnarus, Karen Boughton, Levone Lesperance-Caron, Margaret Lesperance, Ralph Trombo and former students Vera McCallum and Sydney Puchailo.
