Greetings and good wishes to you, a retired teacher of Champaign County.

 

Let me introduce myself to those of you who don’t know me.  I am Sheryl Virts the newly elected President of Champaign County Retired Teachers known at CCRTA.  I retired in 2001 from Urbana High School after teaching math 21 years (fewer years than many of you.)  It was a very rewarding time in my life but life does go on after retirement.  Just because I don’t do the 7 to 4 plus thing anymore doesn’t mean that I have retired from life.  I now have time for other rewarding activities such as singing in the senior citizen’s Guys and Dolls Chorus, volunteering with AARP doing income tax returns for senior citizens and low income families, and going to lunch every other month with my teacher friends are just a few of my new activities. 

 

That brings me to the purpose of this letter.  CCRTA would like to have your support.  You know numbers count in many ways.  The larger our membership the more influence we are likely to have in state and federal legislation.  The more $10.00 annual memberships we gather the more funds we have to do worthwhile community projects and the more active members among those paid memberships we have the more teacher power there is to complete those worthwhile projects. 

 

We have a potential membership pool of at least 360.  That is just the number ORTA gave to us from Champaign County and when you add to that the number of Champaign County retired teachers that live in nearby counties, wow, what a potential pool we have from which to draw.  Now I know some of you have started new careers.  Many of you work part time.  Many of you have found full and part time volunteer work that keeps you as busy as you want to be in your retirement years.  But there may be some of you that would enjoy renewing old friendships over lunch, learning what services and activities are in our community ideally suited for the skills of retired teachers, what others are doing with their retirement years, or just getting together to meet new friends with similar interests. 

 

There are several ways each of you could support us. (1.)  Send us $10.00 for a year’s membership or $100.00 for a life time membership.  (2.)  Come to our six meetings a year and join in.  We usually meet for lunch at 11:00 on the second Tuesday of “even numbered” months.  (Store that in your memory bank.)  We try to announce details in the Community Activities Calendar of Urbana Daily Citizen.  We also have a calling committee system that tries to call those interested in being reminded of our meeting times and scheduled programs.  Ask to be on a list if you like or help us with the calling.  (3)  Give us suggestions of how we as an organization can better serve you and our community.  (4) Donate to our scholarship fund that gives scholarships to students going into the teaching profession.  The amount and number we give depends solely on what we can raise and what is donated for that purpose.  (5)  If you already volunteer many hours of service to the community, (maybe so many that you don’t have time to be an active member) then just become a $5 supporting member and send us a record of your volunteer hours for us to report to the state organization ORTA.  They tell us the numbers count, both memberships totals and community volunteer hours seem to have an influence when it comes to legislators. 

 

Retired teachers, we can still make a difference.  I hope you choose to find a way to support your local organization of retirees.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Sheryl Virts

VP CCRTA