Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 57 • Issue 48
Tomorrow marks the end of one adventure and the beginning of another for departing Juniper Centre CEO BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
RED KETTLES ACCEPTING DONATIONS NEWS - PAGE 2
FINANCIAL PICTURE AND TEACHER LIBRARIANS NEWS - PAGE 3
MIDGET MINERS WIN ONCE AT HOME SPORTS - PAGE 6
SENIOR VOLLEYBALL TEAMS GOING TO PROVINCIALS SPORTS - PAGE 6
As November makes way for December, long-time Juniper Centre employee and current executive director Rachel Templeton is leaving the role that she has filled since 2013. Templeton, who worked as a specialty program manager for six or seven years before taking over the top spot, is leaving town with her husband, bound for Portage la Prairie, where she can be closer to her mother. “I’m by no means retiring,” said Templeton. “I’m too young and can’t afford it.” But with her husband leaving Vale after having worked underground for almost 29 years, they decided this was as good a time to leave as any. “He said if I’m done working at Vale we might as well move down south,” says Templeton. “I have a mom that’s in Winnipeg who’s getting a little bit older that I’d like to be close by.” Templeton’s last day on the job is Nov. 30 and her duties will be taken over by Anna Nelson, chosen by the board to be acting CEO. She announced her departure on Facebook Oct. 23, saying, “It is with a heavy heart that I am sharing this news with all of you. Serving with each of you in the community has been an honour and a privilege. The last few years of service with you have been a time of great growth, opportunity and development. I appreciate all of the support I have received from all of you.” Originally from Winnipeg, Templeton has been in Thompson for nearly three decades after coming up here just before finishing high school. Her association with the Juniper Centre and experience working
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Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham Departing Juniper Centre executive director Rachel Templeton (eighth from right) poses with some of the organization’s staff and clients. with people with disabilities goes back nearly that far. “I was an overnight staff, the live-in night attendant at one of the homes for about a year or two,” she says. Though she hasn’t lined up a new job yet, she says it will likely be in the same field. “I’ve done it since out of high school,” Templeton says. “I think I was 19 when I started as an educational assistant at the school district. I don’t know if I know anything different. I don’t know what I would do.” Looking back over the last four years as executive director, Templeton says she is proud of how the Juniper Centre has grown, not only in size but also in the focus on the organization’s fundamental reason for existence. “We’re here for the people we support,” she says. “That’s our main job.” Keeping that in mind, and because she took over at a time when the centre was not on a solid financial footing, Templeton’s tenure has included some tough decisions that were necessary for long-term sustainability. One of those decisions was to end the Juniper Centre’s Gaiety Night
fundraiser. “As beautiful as Gaiety Night was, it cost a lot of money and it took a lot of effort,” she said. “You would have staff painting a beautiful picture but what was the participant doing, right? You’re kind of putting them off to the side.” The Juniper Centre’s much-loved catering service was another casualty of streamlining. “Closing catering was tough too but we weren’t making enough money off of it because if you have to pay your employees overtime, how are you making any money?” she said. At the same time, the budget has grown from about $1.5 million when she took over to about $4 million now. “We used to have, I think it was 30 or 40 full-time staff. Now we’re about up to 60 and then with parttimers, casuals and summer students we can bubble up to 100 staff,” Templeton says. Even better, the Juniper Centre’s revenues and expenses have balanced out over the past few years. “Some years we’re maybe at zero, some we’re a little bit less,” she says. “I think we finished off last year minus $80,000, not great, but the year before
we were at a surplus of I think $20,000.” In 2013, she remembers, the centre had to deal with a $400,000 deficit. “That’s when it’s like, ‘Holy cow, we’re going to have to close down the doors,’” she said. “I don’t think that’ll ever happen again because the board works hard at making sure we’re dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s and when you have a strong financial group in there, you’re good.” Templeton says she likes to delegate and because of that, the Juniper Centre will get along just fine without her. “I’m not the face of the Juniper Centre,” she says. “My management team, they are strong. If something need to be done, they deal with it, they get ‘er done.” Since announcing her resignation, Templeton says she’s been too focused on ensuring a smooth transition to give too much thought to what actually leaving her job and her home will be like. “I’ve been kept so busy that I haven’t really thought about it,” she said. “I’m sure when the day comes when I’m putting stuff in the U-haul and saying bye to my home that I raised
both my kids in and bye to here because some of these guys I’ve known since they were in Grade 2 or Grade 3, because I worked with them in the school system, that will be the tough day.” She singled out Juniper Centre volunteers, particularly Dolores Kern, and handyman Stu Jobe for thanks, along with board members Cory Low, Serena Puranen, Stacy Martin, Jen Dyke and Jill Quilty. She also said she could have never done the job without her family. Her mother used to come up sometimes during busy times to help out at home and her husband and children have all been recruited for various duties over the years. “There’s been times where all of my family has come to help me with a fundraiser,” Templeton says. With her children still living in Thompson, along with all but one of the members of her wedding party, Templeton says she’s bound to be back for a visit, perhaps even in January when the city is supposed to take delivery of its new handivan. “I want to stand in it and dance in it because I’ll be so happy that we finally got one,” she says. “That’s been a long adventure.” But while fundraising and dealing with bureaucracy could sometimes get her down, Templeton says it was always easy to get her focus back. “Lots of times if I’m having a really rough day, you know, the government’s driving me crazy or the city’s driving me crazy, I’ll put my stuff down at my desk and I’ll go walk around and I’ll talk to the guys and I’m like, ‘OK, I’m good now. I remember why I’m here. I’m going to go back and fight some more.’ You have to do that, to remember why you’re here.”
CALL NELSON: 204-307-0281 npruder@live.ca