The weather was especially hot this summer, averaging over 25C for June, July and much of August and there has been just enough rain to keep the lawns and gardens growing. Many days, I golfed 9 holes at 7:30 am and still weeded the garden before 10:30 am. Too hot many afternoons! Pam and I enjoyed a bumper crop of peas, beans, Swiss chard, red peppers and way too many tomatoes. The potatoes are ripe in the ground and squash will not be far behind. I trust that all of your backyard gardeners had similar luck.

I hope that you have filled your summer with visits to the beach, taking grandchildren to a water park, travelling throughout the Maritimes or for that matter, travelling anywhere. Perhaps you were playing your favourite sport, walking trails, riding a bike or resting in a hammock with a good summer read – whatever brought you peace comfort or pleasure. I hope it was a memorable summer for you.

We know many local branches already planned “before school or first day of school” breakfasts to get our school year underway and with extra funding you can anticipate locals will do more than ever before. Provincially, we have a banner year in the works. Miramichi Area Retired Teachers Association (MARTA) is hosting our 50th Anniversary Annual General Meeting at the Rodd Inn, May 13, 2025. It is hard to imagine that we have grown from a couple of hundred members in 1975 to over 3,000 currently and the best is yet to come. What better place to celebrate our 50 years than Miramichi – they know how to organize, and they know how to party. We hope to have the largest attendance in our history, so save the date now. Check our webpage for periodic updates as the Planning Committee meets again in early September.

And speaking of webpages, the Executive has approved a budget to launch a new webpage in time for our 50th Anniversary. It will be user-friendly, therefore easier to navigate and will be filled with timely, useful and relevant information for retired teachers. Watch for the launch. In fact, make our webpage one of your favourites to check every week! You’ll be pleasantly surprised with all that is happening in each of our 10 branches.

Many of you joined our colleagues from the NBTA in the marches all over the province in the “squeeze the lemon campaign” in the Spring of 2023. It took some of us back to our 1-day strike action and it was fun to be marching arm in arm with our active teacher colleagues, who were seeking their new contract. They really appreciated our support. We met with Peter Legacy, NBTA President and Ardith Shirley, NBTA Executive Director last month to explore ways to expand our cooperation. They began by wanting to thank all of the retired teachers, who together, provided 7,000 supply teacher days last year. They suggested the system would have collapsed without retired teachers pitching in “big time” as the only professionally qualified supply teachers were retired teachers. And they will need our help again, so if you are up for it, let your favourite school know. The NBTA was key to getting our organization started 50 years ago and still provides us with $6,500 annually in grants, and their graphic artist lays out each issue of our magazine, “Reflections”, and sees that it is printed and distributed.

The NBTA will be looking for our support again this fall, as we are on the cusp of a Provincial Election. All of the political parties were asked to respond to questions about public school education by the NBTA. We’ll share their answers with you and encourage you to speak to the candidates to let them know where you stand. As an organization, we remain non-partisan, but we are not without knowledge and opinions. Let’s pay attention to what the politicians are saying, to make sure public education is once again a priority.

I’ll see you at your events whenever you invite me!

Cheers!

Rod Campbell, President NBSRT