Lions Anniversary Full Transcript
This episode's guest, Fern Rashkover, has built a life around service, learning, and leadership. Her journey in volunteerism began soon after college. She brings decades of leadership as a proud member of the Lions Club and Toastmasters.
Today, she joins us to discuss the Floral Park Lions Club, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Fern will share how she’s contributed to strengthening the community and reflect on the remarkable impact the Lions have had over the past century.
Fran starts:
And I'm also a member of an organization called Toastmasters International, public speaking clubs for people who want to improve their public speaking skills. All right. So in 2000, one of my friends from Toastmasters, who's also a Lion, told me that our 20K1 Brooklyn Queens midwinter was going to be literally a mile from my house in Douglaston.
And I said, oh, Lions, I don't really know too much about that. Why don't you find out if you can bring a guest? To make a long story short, I went to their midwinter, and I found out there was a club in Little Neck, Douglaston. And I said, oh, good to myself.
I live in Douglaston. And I ended up joining Little Neck, Douglaston in 2001. After going to the conference, the midwinter, I noticed that there really wasn't a lot to do for the regular members.
The big shots have their meetings. I went downstairs to the Rotunda and looked at the exhibits and everything. And I got bored very quickly.
So the following year, I offered, because I've been teaching public speaking to adults and children since 1983, and I offered to do a workshop in public speaking in the midwinter in the future. To make a long story short, they liked the idea. And I've done in 25 years, maybe 12, 13, 14 workshops in the midwinter that was very well received.
They then, in 2018, I got a phone call from somebody in 20K1. He had started a USA Canada forum, leadership forum for the Leos the year before. It had a very small group on Long Island.
And the Leos are? The Leos are the teenage lions. Okay. All right.
So he started this conference for the Leos. And in 2018, he called me up a week or two before the conference and asked me if I would do a public speaking workshop for the Leos in Tarrytown, New York at their conference. So I of course, I said yes, because I love teaching kids.
I had no idea what to expect. To them, I'd probably be this old lady that, you know, trying to teach them something in the summer. I didn't know how well it would be received.
And as it turned out, it was a big success. The kids loved it. The lions, and there were lions there.
I didn't think they would, I thought it would just be kids and the lions loved it. And the kids voted me the best workshop at the conference. And they didn't know me from Adams.
So this was, this was kind of interesting. And I, it was, it was very good for my ego, I have to say. So the next year, the conference in 2019 was going to be in Mesa, Arizona.
And the planning committee and the kids and the lions, especially the kids said they wanted two workshops in public speaking, and they wanted to give speeches. And I said, that's fine. So in Arizona, I think there was about 60 kids.
And I did a part one and a part two public speaking workshop on how to put together a presentation and how to speak extemporaneously, etc. Which is what we do in Toastmasters. And I got a couple of kids to volunteer to do a speech on Friday night after dinner, instead of getting a keynote.
So I got about five or six kids, I worked with them for less than an hour and a half. And they did what most adults wouldn't do in a lifetime. They put together a speech.
And I went over it with them. And we rehearsed. And we were the entertainment Friday night.
And it was unbelievable. Now the kids are loving this. And they want me to continue giving these workshops at the conventions.
Then we had COVID. So in 2020, the Leo convention was canceled. In 2021, which you can now appreciate, they zoomed it.
And I didn't participate in that. And then in 2022, we were in Fresno, California. But here's a good story.
A week before the convention, I get a call from Idina Callender. She was also part of the team that formed this Leo's forum. And she said, there's a kid named David.
He's going into ninth grade. His grandma is a lion. He's a Leo.
And the grandma wants him to go to Arizona. Can he fly with me? They can get on my plane. And I said, of course.
He's going to LaGuardia School of the Arts in the city. So he has some musical talent. I was told he was very shy and quiet.
And I said, OK, fine. No problem. Well, while we were waiting for the two flights, while we were waiting at Kennedy for the first flight to Dallas, I said, so David, tell me how you became a Leo.
And I'm keeping myself very low key because I don't want to scare the kid. He said, well, he's been going to Lions meetings since he's four years old with grandma. And I just looked at him and I said to myself, oh, my God, here's one of my speakers for Friday night dinner.
But I didn't say anything to him because I didn't want to scare him. Because if I said something to him, how I'm looking for volunteers to speak Friday night, I figured he'd call grandma and say, Grandma, get back in your car and come from Brooklyn to the airport. This lady is crazy.
I'm not going. So I didn't say anything. But we get to Dallas, we're waiting for the connecting flight.
And then I told David how I approach teaching the public speaking and how I'm looking for a couple of volunteers to speak at night. And I said, David, I'm not asking you to say yes or no right now. I said, but you sound like you have a wonderful story to tell about becoming a Leo.
I said, I really would like you to speak Friday night, but I'm not asking you yes or no. I said, let's go to my first workshop. And you'll get the lay of the land and see what I'm all about and what we're going to be doing.
And then I'm going to look at you at the end of the workshop. And I'll smile. And you will either nod your head yes or no.
So of course he nodded his head yes. Well, he gave a speech. He was unbelievable.
I told the kids, video, get your friends to video so you could send it home so your parents will see what you did. Well, I understand there's a word in Yiddish, kveling, K-V-E-L-L-I-N-G, which means you're so proud you could just bust open. They were going crazy in Brooklyn.
They could not believe I got this shy, quiet kid to speak. The following year, he became something, and then stayed in New York on some kind of Leo board. So he progressed very quickly in leadership.
And in 2022, Little Neck Douglaston folded for various reasons. And the only other club I knew I would consider joining was Floral Park because, A, I knew Terry for many years. We were on the board of directors of the Lion's Eye Bank of Long Island.
And I did that for about six years. So I met a lot, a lot of people, especially from Nassau and Suffolk. And Irene Caniano, she and I were in the same Toastmaster Club in Newhart Park.
And I said to myself, Anna was an afternoon luncheon. I'm retired now, so that would work for me, blah, blah, blah. So I went and called Terry, and I said, I want to join Floral Park.
And she said, that would be great. But I wanted to keep my connection with 20K1. Because I'm still involved with them.
I'm still doing workshops for the Leos in public speaking. And this year, I did, after a couple of years, I did another public speaking workshop for the Lions at the Midwinter and got to meet the international president. He visited our Midwinter.
And I joined Hollis as an associate member. I really don't do anything with them. But my friend Adina is in the club, and Maureen Thomas, and I knew a few people.
I said, that's the club I would, and they accepted me to be an associate member. So I could still be a member of 20K1 as well, and get the best of both worlds. So last year, Terry asked me, would I be the Leo advisor for our club? And I was extremely honored.
The lady that had been doing it had done it because her son was a Leo, but I guess the son was in college or working or whatever. And they had a guy at the high school that had been doing it for like eight or nine years. But he was stepping down, and they got somebody else, another teacher.
And I said, yes. Unfortunately, I only made it till the end of November. I don't know.
I don't really think I should discuss in a podcast why I stepped down. No, that's fine. Yeah.
So why don't you, so are you still working with that? Oh, okay. So last summer, I was asked by Maria, how do you say her last name, the district governor, Maria Leteo, if I would be the Leo advisor for the district. And I was like, oh, my God.
She had spoken to Terry before she spoke to me. And I was very excited about that. But what I wanted to do, and at a couple of the district meetings I went to, I really wanted to do a conference for the Leos, for Nassau and Suffolk, even though Suffolk is a different district.
They only have three Leos clubs, but it never came to fruition. But what I did was I was working with Tracy Thompson, who became the Leo advisor for the Floral Park Leos. And I said I wanted to do a public speaking workshop for them.
So we finally got it set up in May. And I was given less than an hour. It was their regular Leo meeting.
And my modus operandi is spending about 15, 20 minutes on how to put together a presentation following the writing process that the children learn in school since kindergarten. The introduction, grab the audience's attention, the body, the three or four points you want to develop, and then the conclusion, where do you want to leave your audience. Then I do what we call in Toastmasters table topics, extemporaneous speaking, where you're asked to comment on something and you have one to two minutes.
Think like an interview question. You've got to get your thoughts together real fast. It's a real excellent exercise and probably the most challenging part of the whole public speaking experience.
And I did it with the kids. And they were phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal.
That's my shtick, wanting to teach public speaking and continue doing it with the Leos and the Lions. I've offered to go to clubs and do a little something for their clubs, but that really hasn't happened. I was a little frustrated this year because I really wanted to do this conference and it didn't work.
And then the new district governor, Jean Mulroney, asked me to stay on as the Leo chair. And I said, okay. And Maria said she would work with me, the past district governor, on getting this conference together for our Leos.
I've made many friends going to other Lions from Connecticut and Illinois and New Jersey who are past district governors, past council chairs, and very active with the Leos. So they have become my mentors. And I had spoken to them about how to put together a conference.
So I have good people helping me in the background as far as the Leos are concerned. These kids at Laurel Park were absolutely delicious, just wonderful, all ages, middle school to the high school. And they've been doing a lot of service projects.
The girl that became the Leo, the teacher that became the Leo advisor for the high school this year, did a lot with these kids. And I don't have a list of their projects. Tracy would have that.
You might want to talk to her about exactly what the Leos did. But they've been very active and doing wonderful things and had an opportunity to talk to them in, was it, let me see, I went there in May. Then in June, Terry and Lynn and some of the other Lions put together an installation program where the kids were installed as Leos and they brought in food and there were some speeches and the kids were just amazing.
And my background is volunteerism. So before I started teaching, I directed a hospital volunteer program for about five years in New Jersey. That was my dream job.
I got involved with that while I was in graduate school in Indiana, volunteering on campus. So when I joined the Lions, I was always directing volunteer programs. I directed another program part time while I was teaching in the city, volunteer services for children.
So I was always so busy running volunteer programs. I never had a chance to volunteer myself. That's when I found out about the Lions.
I said, oh, finally, I can make some contributions and get involved as a volunteer and not running the whole show. And that's how I got involved with the Lions. Yeah, it sounds like you've made a big difference, especially with the Leos.
To learn a speaking skill, you don't get that opportunity often to do that. You mentioned that you were on the board of the iBank. Can you talk a little bit about that? Oh, OK.
All right. So it's been a long time. Let me see.
This had to be, OK, maybe 2006, 2007. Charlie McBride, may he rest in peace, was the president of Little Neck Douglas in Lions Club and also a best district governor. And he said, we're going to go to a program.
I said, where? He said at North Shore Hospital. I said, for what? He said the Lions iBank is honoring their volunteers and their couriers. Who transport the corneas.
And he said, and we're going. I said, OK, fine, no problem. It was an amazing program.
This Marilyn McAndrews was the chairman of the board. She ran some show. She had a doctor come up and explain about corneal transplants and organ donation.
But what was even more amazing is she brought up one or two people who were either related to somebody that got a recipient of a cornea or who had gotten one themselves. And the program was unbelievable. At the end of the program, I went up to this Marilyn and I just congratulated her.
I said, I'm a Toastmaster and I'm very critical when I hear when I see presentations. And I said, you guys were amazing. And congratulations.
And next thing you know, I'm on the board. The six years. And I live in Douglaston.
The building was right on Community Drive between Northern Boulevard and the Expressway. So it was nice and convenient for me. And I said, I don't know anything.
I don't have any money to give you. Because I always thought if you're on a board of directors, you got to give money. She says, no, it's not that kind of board.
So I learned a lot. I participated and I stayed until they moved to Franklin Hospital in Valley Stream. And then I did it for six years.
I wasn't able to get to the meetings when they moved. The most unbelievable thing I remember about being on the board is they gave us when Franklin Hospital said they would host the new eye bank. And we got a tour at Franklin Hospital.
And they take us into the offices of the eye bank. And all I remember is this like fish tank of eyeballs floating around the fish tank. Oh, wow.
These were the donated organs that were going to be used for transplants with the corneas. And they're just floating around. You know, like on Halloween, they sell the eyeball candy.
That's what it was like. Except they were floating in whatever solution they were floating in. It was unbelievable.
We had a couple of fundraisers. And I remember going to the UBS Center. Or was it? Or National Coliseum.
It was before the UBS Center was probably open for a hockey game. And they sponsored us. And we were able to raise money from the hockey game.
We had some other fundraising events as well that I can't recall at the last minute. And I got to go to a hockey game, which was nice. But the people I met was so dedicated to this eye bank.
Oh, I used to go. We used to go out in the community and get a table at an affair or an event or something, and then give people information about being an organ donor. And what was interesting is when this Marilyn McAndrews asked me to be on the board, I wasn't an organ donor yet.
I said, well, I guess I've got to put my money where my mouth is. She came over to my house one day. And I had the form.
And I signed it. And I said, you put it in the mail. Just in case I decided I want to put it in the mail and became an organ donor.
But one funny thing, I was given an assignment to go. I think it was the West Hempstead Rotary and to do a little presentation on the eye bank. And I did.
And there's this rabbi there. And I said, look, I said to everybody, I said, this is a very personal decision. I'm not asking you to be an organ donor.
I just want you to understand what it means and to think about it. And here are the forms if you decide you want to do it. So this rabbi looks at me very gruffly.
And he says, I'm not being an organ donor. I said, OK, rabbi, again, I'm not asking you to. He says, no, you don't understand.
He was a double recipient. He was yanking my chain. And I thought he was like angry at me.
So that was a nice little thing to meet somebody who was a recipient of what we're doing. And there were a couple of other places that I went also where I went to some kind of networking event at a diner with professionals that meet and network and all that stuff and did a couple of presentations like that. So I like going on the road.
That was terrific, getting people to think about it. And hopefully people signing up to be an organ donor. So if you're if you could give us a little information, if you're a teenager or a parent of a teen, how do they get in? What's the best way to get them involved with the Leos? Go to the club or contact the person directly or?
[Speaker 2]
of a team. How do they get in? What's the best way to get them involved with the Leos?
Go to the club or contact the person directly or?
[Speaker 1]
Okay, that's a great question. There are two kinds of Leo clubs. There are community-based Leo clubs and high school-based Leo clubs.
Laurel Park is school-based and interestingly enough, two years ago I went to Reno to the US-Canada Lions Forum for the adults and I went to all the Leo workshops and this guy that I'd met at the Leo convention, Tim Beer from Calgary in Alberta, Canada, said if you're involved with a high school group, I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just different than a community group, the high school calls the shots.
The high school will let you know what you can or cannot do. Yes, everything has to go through the high school. The community-based Leos clubs, they do their own thing under the auspices, of course, of Lions International.
So the Leos club in Laurel Park, I think they have like an activities fair at the high school and the kids get to go around and see all the different clubs and all the different activities they can get involved with. So I think that's how, in addition to word-of-mouth and actual activities and publicity during the year, the high school-based, the parents the kids are going to find out about it through an activities thing. In Nassau County, in 20-K-1, I don't even think there are a dozen clubs.
I don't know how many clubs there are, Lions clubs, but I believe there are less than a dozen and I was told not all of them are active. Laurel Park is active, I understand. Seaford has a great, also Seaford High School, high school-based, I understand has a great program.
I was told Jericho's trying to resurrect their Leos club. Mineola, the Portuguese Lions club has a Leos club and now Mineola High School, a new club just formed. I understand there's a club in Rockville Center that's active.
And of course, we can't forget Bermuda with Marcosello, who's the past district governor. They have a very active Leos club there. So if a parent or a kid, if it's high school-based, it's easy to find out.
If, well, if a parent had absolutely no idea how to get, how to find that information, all they have to do is call Lions Clubs International and then they would be given information. I, one of the things we have in Toastmasters is we do youth leadership programs and doing public speaking as a volunteer for kids. And I've done, I teach privately and receive, I receive a salary and I'm still doing that.
And I've also spent over 12 years doing youth leadership. And parents, particularly in Westchester County, wanted to see if they could get their kids involved and they called Toastmasters International. And for a couple of years, I was the lead, I was the youth leadership liaison or whatever, and I would talk to the parents and then see what I could do with, you know, how they lived or resided, similar to the Lions thing.
So if they are not aware of a Lions club in their area, then the best thing would be to call Lions Clubs International and then they'll make the referrals to the Lions club in their area and then find out if there's a Leos club or the closest Leos club in their area.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, we'll make sure that that phone number is included in the references. Honestly, your workshops sound great. It's like everyone could benefit from a workshop like that.
No matter what your... Go ahead. No, well, no matter what your business is or your community group or it just sounds, you know, I'm sitting here thinking, oh, that'd be a good one to go to, you know, so.
[Speaker 1]
I am going on Tuesday to Cromwell, Connecticut to the next LEO, USA Canada LEO Forum. And interestingly enough, every year, my kids have given speeches. Within one hour, they write a speech we rehearse and then an hour later they're going on stage and they're they're unbelievable.
But this year, I was just talking to my ladies that are the chair and the lady that's the dean of the curriculum and the programming and because there are now Leos this year that are going to be giving workshops. I have a feeling, I hope that I'm not going to be replaced in the future, but Lions Clubs International wants more Leos to give workshops. So we have a whole bunch of Leos that are giving workshops on various topics.
So there wasn't time, they didn't factor in time for me to get that extra hour and a half to work with the Leos before the Friday night dinner. So I suggested and they agreed, we can do a panel discussion. And what I will do is I have a whole bunch of questions.
How did you become a Leo? Why do you stay? Your memorable moment?
What kind of service? Why would you recommend this to a friend? You know, simple stuff.
And they'll have a minute or two or three to talk about their experiences with the Leo, as opposed to writing a full speech. That's what we call table topics in Toastmasters. And I will get volunteers, I won't make anybody do it, and I'm sure a lot of people are going to volunteer and then I'm just going to have to pick five or six kids.
I'll just pull their names out of the hat, to be fair. And so there'll be a little bit of a change this year.
[Speaker 2]
It's almost like you could give a workshop on how to give a workshop.
[Speaker 1]
Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And as a matter of fact, I asked the woman who's the chair of the conference, I said, you know, they want Leos to give conferences, to give workshops.
Are they training the Leos? I didn't really get an answer. I just said, are they being scripted?
Are they given the information that, you know, how do you expect a 15-year-old to come up with content? So I'm not quite sure. I'm just going to assume they've got scripts.
I will find out next week. It'll be very interesting, but again, another opportunity and another challenge for these kids.
[Speaker 2]
Right, and not only kids, but you could give that for adults. That would be, you know.
[Speaker 1]
Well, I was hoping to get asked to, in Atlantic City, to do a workshop on public speaking, since I've gotten, you know, a little name recognition now, because last, a year and a half ago, one of my mentors from New Jersey, she put together, New Jersey, I think maybe they have three districts. Obviously, they're a lot smaller than New York. She put together in Fayetteville, New Jersey, a state conference for the Leos.
And again, she said, you have to come and you'll do a couple of workshops in public speaking. She says, we'll probably have like 100 kids, so you'll do like three, you'll do three workshops. And I said, fine.
And there were one or two Leos that did do workshops, and they were, they were fantastic. And I was really kind of hoping that I, I don't know if they have public speaking workshops that these U.S. Canada forums for the Lions really don't know. And I was kind of hoping, especially since it was nice and close, but I wasn't asked, but you know, that's okay.
They got a million other things. And I'll go to all the Leo workshops again, and whatever else I want to go to, in between all the slot machines. You can see where my head is at.
[Speaker 2]
You made a comment that you were running volunteer programs and didn't get to volunteer, but honestly, running the programs effectively, so that people can volunteer and their time isn't wasted, you know, is just as important. I mean, that's volunteer work, you know, so.
[Speaker 1]
Oh, absolutely. What happened was, when I was in graduate school at Indiana University, I was an RA in the dorm. They paid for graduate school for two years, which was very nice, and they had a student activities fair as the kids were coming in with all the different things you could do on campus.
So, they had a volunteer student's bureau. To make a long story short, I volunteered for two years at the local Christian center as a big, as a, as a, for the Big Buddy program. And they said, when we, they bused us out to wherever, someplace in Bloomington, you know, small town, and they said, you'll get out of the van and a kid will come up to you.
Will you be my buddy? And of course you'll say yes. Well, this little kid comes up to me, about eight years old, and he says, will you be my buddy?
I said, of course. And then I looked at him. I said, hold on a second.
You're not from Indiana. Are you from New York? He says, yeah, Jackson Heights.
I said, Jackson Heights. I said, what are you doing here? Apparently the father had died.
The mother had a sister in Bloomington and the mother moved them out there. So, I was his buddy for two years. We used to bring him to the dorm.
The guys would play ball with him. Well, there was a full-time person directing the volunteer student's bureau on campus, but she used graduate students and undergraduate students to coordinate the program. So, to make a long story short, the second semester, and then for the other, then the second year of graduate school, I coordinated the, as a volunteer, coordinated the Big Buddy program, and they also gave me Head Start.
And as a result of that, I said to myself, oh my God, this is what I want to do. I want to direct a volunteer program, ideally on a college campus. I got my Master's in College Student Personnel Administration, and I ended up at American University in 1974, directing a residence hall.
But I had met at a convention of college administrators, two women from the National Student Volunteer Program in D.C. It was part of the action umbrella, Peace Corps and all, SCORE and all the different federal volunteer programs. And when I had the interview at American, I called them up and said, listen, I want to take this job at American, but I want to volunteer for you guys one afternoon a week so I can learn about your agency and be of assistance. So, they got me in, despite all the red tape, as a volunteer, and it was wonderful.
I was planning to go back to American, my check for the second year, and then I met the Director of Volunteers at Bellevue Hospital. I was introduced to her. So, when I came home for the summer from American University, I went every day into the city.
I just got in the car, so I drove every day into the city, and I volunteered in Mrs. Davidson's office, learning how to become a Director of Volunteers. In the middle of the summer, there was an article, there was an ad in the Times, a Central Jersey hospital looking for a Director of Volunteers. So, at age 25, I got the job, and I commuted from Washington to Perth Amboy the first year, then I lived in New Jersey for a couple of years.
So, that is how I got interested in directing a volunteer program and had the opportunity to direct a volunteer program, and it was amazing.
[Speaker 2]
Yeah, I found doing volunteer work, I learned, I got, because if you're a volunteer, people are usually so grateful that you're doing something, that you can test things out, like technology. I use, I'll say, oh, this is a new technology, let me try this out, and people don't care. If you can get the project done, they don't care how you do it, you know.
[Speaker 1]
Right.
[Speaker 2]
They're just so grateful, and that's how I've, you know, got to practice a lot of new technology things through the years, where I couldn't do it in corporate, because it was already laid out, and I didn't, you know, wasn't in charge. But with Volunteers, I got to try things and see what worked and learn, and you also then, you're meeting people, and you don't have to, you know, feel so frustrated, you know, with, if you're, you know, looking for a better position, you're working towards a common goal.
[Speaker 1]
So, right, well, are there, you said corporate, in the 80s, in the early 80s, and I guess the late 70s, I don't know how far into the 80s it continued. When I was working, I worked in the city, when I left the hospital, I worked in the city for a non-profit for one year. There were corporations that actually had, maybe you know this, they actually had an employee who directed the Volunteer efforts, or coordinated the Volunteer efforts of employees, and they worked with agencies, and made referrals, and I said, oh my god, that would be so interesting to get into the corporate level, but they were doing that from within, and usually most of those people, it wasn't just the full-time director of Volunteers at the corporation, maybe they were part of human resources, or public relations, or, you know, some other people-oriented department.
I don't know how, I don't know, I don't know if that still continues in that, but now people, you know, online and everything, and technology, as you were talking about, and just find stuff on their own, but there used to be a lot of Volunteer recruitment agencies in the 70s and 80s in the city. The Mayor's Voluntary Action Center, if you wanted to do, and that was on 61 Chambers, if you wanted to do Volunteer work, and you didn't know what you wanted, you would go down there, and they had all these different agencies, and they categorized the children, adults, and hospitals, and the arts, whatever, and they would interview you, and then you would say, okay, I'd like to go do this in a nursing home, or work in a museum as a docent, whatever, and then they would give you referrals, and then you would call the Volunteer director at the various agencies, and then take it from there. Winnie Brown, who was the director of the Mayor's Voluntary Action Center, I begged her, give me a job, give me a job, when I came back to the city, and I was teaching at the time, and she said, you know, I have an assistant director.
I said, yeah, don't you want to? She says, no, I can't do that, blah, blah, blah, but you just keep doing what you're doing. When I came back and worked in the city for a non-profit, it was also going to be a volunteer referral agency, and I set up a whole network of agencies that needed volunteers, similar to the Mayor's Voluntary Action Center, but on a smaller scale, and I went to interview this one woman who was the director of Volunteer Services for Children, and they had a tutoring program at various sites in the city, and they also had a Saturday outings program taking volunteers and kids on Saturday outings. Well, after I interviewed her, I said, okay, great, I'm back in New York.
I've been out of New York for eight years. I want to do some good stuff. I want to become a volunteer on your program, and I did, and I went on these Saturday outings every Saturday.
Within a year, they put me on their planning committee, and then two years later, they hired me part-time as the Saturday outings coordinator, so while I was teaching, I would go into the city a couple of days a week after school because, you know, most teachers have more than one job helping to run this volunteer program, and then I worked about 35 Saturdays a year running bus trips, two, three buses of volunteers and kids all over the tri-state area, so.
[Speaker 2]
And that's the thing with volunteering. You never know where it's going to lead you, you know?
[Speaker 1]
That's correct, exactly, and the Lions, the opportunities that have come my way, the things that I've been able to share of my own skills and talents, but basically, I'm in Toastmasters 45 years. I'm in Lions 25 years. It's about, it's all about the people.
It's all the things you can do, but especially with Toastmasters, after 45 years, it's all about the people and the friends that I've made is all over in the United States and Canada. It's really amazing, and a few overseas, and the same thing with the Lions. Some of us, though, organization people, most of my friends are not in Toastmasters or Lions.
They're not organization people, and my life has been, I can't imagine my life without Toastmasters, and I can't imagine what my life would be without Lions, and everything in my life has just fallen into place. It's not like I went looking for this stuff. Everything I just happened to find out about from one thing to another, and that's what makes my life so interesting, and I've been very lucky with all the things that I've been able to do and still do.
I've been teaching. We started a Toastmaster program about 14 years ago at the Chinese Center of Long Island in West Hempstead, on Hempstead Turnpike, about a mile east of Nassau Boulevard. I don't know if you've ever heard of it.
They have their own building. They've been around since 1960, and they have programs for the children, the adults, and the seniors, and they're very active in the community. Mostly Chinese families, a couple of hundred from Nassau, Northeastern Queens, some Suffolk.
So I helped start this Toastmaster program, and I joined the Toastmaster Club, and then I offered to do a youth leadership program for them and teach the children. Well, we pay our instructors. I said, yeah, I understand.
I said, but in Toastmasters, this is how we give back. No, we pay our instructors. I said, okay.
I said, how about if I do a one eight-week session, and then you see if you like it, and then you can hire me the next semester. No, we pay our instructors. So we're going to keep arguing.
So for the last 12 years or so, twice a year, eight weeks in the fall, eight weeks in the spring, ages six, two, whatever, I teach them. I do my thing like I was telling you, and then we have a show, and the kids do their speeches. They run the whole show.
Six-year-olds, eight-year-olds, ten-year-olds, doesn't make any difference. I want them to do. They do, and these kids are unbelievable, and I'm still doing it, and I do it for the lion, and I'm just so lucky that I still get to do it.
[Speaker 2]
Really, and what a difference if you think of what six-year-old is going to be able to give a speech generally.
[Speaker 1]
And they do.
[Speaker 2]
Without training, and then it's going to affect their whole business life, their school life, their professional, their volunteer life. It makes a huge difference. I mean, it just
Oh my God, this is what I want to do. I want to direct a volunteer program, ideally on a college campus. I got my Master's in College Student Personnel Administration, and I ended up at American University in 1974 directing a residence hall.
But I had met at a convention of college administrators, two women from the National Student Volunteer Program in D.C. It was part of the Action Umbrella, Peace Corps, and all the different federal volunteer programs. And when I had the interview at American, I called them up and said, listen, I want to take this job at American, but I want to volunteer for you guys one afternoon a week so I can learn about your agency and be of assistance. So they got me in, despite all the red tape, as a volunteer, and it was wonderful.
I was planning to go back to American, my check for the second year, and then I met the Director of Volunteers at Bellevue Hospital. I was introduced to her. So when I came home for the summer from American University, I went every day into the city.
I had just gotten a car, so I drove every day into the city, and I volunteered at Mrs. Davidson's office, learning how to become a Director of Volunteers. In the middle of the summer, there was an article, there was an ad in the Times, a Central Jersey hospital looking for a Director of Volunteers. So at age 25, I got the job.
And I commuted from Flushing to Perth Amboy the first year, then I lived in New Jersey for a couple of years. So that is how I got interested in directing a volunteer program and had the opportunity to direct a volunteer program. And it was amazing.
Yeah. I found doing volunteer work, I learned, I got, because if you're a volunteer, people are usually so grateful that you're doing something, that you can test things out, like technology. I use, I'll say, oh, this is a new technology, let me try this out.
And people don't care. If you can get the project done, they don't care how you do it, you know? They're just so grateful. And that's how I've, you know, got to practice a lot of new technology things through the years, where I couldn't do it in corporate, because it was already laid out, and I didn't, you know, wasn't in charge.
But with volunteers, I got to try things and see what worked and learn. And you also, then, you're meeting people, and you don't have to, you know, feel so frustrated, you know, with if you're, you know, looking for a better position, you're working towards a common goal. So... Right.
Well, are there any, go ahead. You said corporate, in the 80s, in the early 80s, and I guess the late 70s, I don't know how far into the 80s it continued. When I was working, I worked in the city, when I left the hospital, I worked in the city for a non-profit for one year.
There were corporations that actually had, maybe you know this, they actually had an employee who directed the volunteer efforts, or coordinated the volunteer efforts of employees. And they worked with agencies and made referrals, and I said, oh my God, that would be so interesting to get into the corporate level, but they were doing that from within. And usually most of those people, it wasn't just a full-time director of volunteers at the corporation, maybe they were part of human resources or public relations or, you know, some other people-oriented department.
I don't know how, I don't know if that still continues in that, but now people, you know, online and everything, and technology, as you were talking about, can just find stuff on their own. But there used to be a lot of volunteer recruitment agencies in the 70s and 80s in the city. The Mayor's Voluntary Action Center, if you wanted to do, and that was on 61 Chambers, if you wanted to do volunteer work, and you didn't know what you wanted, you would go down there, and they had all these different agencies, and they categorized the children and adults and hospitals and the arts, whatever, and they would interview you, and then you would say, okay, I'd like to go do this in a nursing home or work in a museum as a docent, whatever, and then they would give you referrals, and then you would call the volunteer director at the various agencies, and then take it from there.
Winnie Brown, who was the director of the Mayor's Voluntary Action Center, I begged her, give me a job, give me a job, and I came back to the city, and I was teaching at the time, and she said, you know, I have an assistant director. I said, yeah, don't you want to? She said, no, I can't do that, blah, blah, blah, but you just keep doing what you're doing. When I came back and worked in the city for a non-profit, it was also going to be a volunteer referral agency, and I set up a whole network of agencies that needed volunteers, similar to the Mayor's Voluntary Action Center, but on a smaller scale, and I went to interview this one woman who was the director of volunteer services for children, and they had a tutoring program at various sites in the city, and they also had a Saturday outings program taking volunteers and kids on Saturday outings.
Well, after I interviewed her, I said, okay, Grace, I'm back in New York. I've been out of New York for eight years. I want to do some good stuff.
I want to become a volunteer on your program, and I did, and I went on these Saturday outings every Saturday. Within a year, they put me on their planning committee, and then two years later, they hired me part-time as the Saturday outings coordinator, so while I was teaching, I would go into the city a couple of days a week after school, because most teachers have more than one job helping to run this volunteer program, and then I worked about 35 Saturdays a year running bus trips, two, three buses of volunteers and kids all over the tri-state area. And that's the thing with volunteering.
You never know where it's going to lead you, you know? Exactly, and the Lions, the opportunities that have come my way, the things that I've been able to share of my own skills and talents, but basically, I'm in Toastmasters 45 years. I'm in Lions 25 years. It's all about the people.
It's all the things you can do, but especially with Toastmasters, after 45 years, it's all about the people and the friends that I've made all over in the United States and Canada. It's really amazing. Thank you, Overseas, and the same thing with the Lions.
Some of us are organization people. Most of my friends are not in Toastmasters or Lions. They're not organization people, and my life has been… I can't imagine my life without Toastmasters, and I can't imagine what my life would be without Lions, and everything in my life has just fallen into place.
It's not like I went looking for this stuff. Everything I just happened to find out about from one thing to another. That's what makes my life so interesting, and I've been very lucky with all the things that I've been able to do and still do.
I've been teaching. We started a Toastmaster program about 14 years ago at the Chinese Center of Long Island in West Hempstead. It's on Hempstead Turnpike, about a mile east of Nassau Boulevard.
I don't know if you've ever heard of it. They have their own building. They've been around since 1960, and they have programs for the children, the adults, and the seniors, and they're very active in the community.
Mostly Chinese families, a couple of hundred from Nassau, Northeastern Queens, some Suffolk. So I helped start this Toastmaster program, and I joined the Toastmaster Club, and then I offered to do a youth leadership program for them and teach the children. Well, we pay our instructors.
I said, yeah, I understand. I said, but in Toastmasters, this is how we give back. No, we pay our instructors.
I said, okay. I said, how about if I do a one eight-week session, and then you see if you like it, and then you can hire me the next semester. No, we pay our instructors, so we're not going to keep arguing.
So for the last 12 years or so, twice a year, eight weeks in the fall, eight weeks in the spring, ages six to whatever, I teach them. I do my thing like I was telling you, and then we have a show, and the kids do their speeches. They run the whole show.
Six-year-olds, eight-year-olds, 10-year-olds, doesn't make any difference. I want them to do. They do, and these kids are unbelievable, and I'm still doing it, and I do it for the Lions, and I'm just so lucky that I still get to do it.
What a difference if you think of what six-year-old is going to be able to give a speech, generally, without training, and then it's going to affect their whole business life, their school life, their professional, their volunteer life. It makes a huge difference. I mean, it just goes.
You know, it multiplies. Let me tell you something. This is how it comes full circle.
I was at about, I don't know, 12, 13 years ago. We have officer training like they do in Lions for Toastmasters. I'm at MetLife in the city, and a young man in his early 20s comes up to me and says, Ms. Rashkola? And I said to myself, oh, my God, he went to PS86? I said, yeah.
He says, do you remember me? I said, what's your name? And he says, Jesse Cassell. I said, Jesse. I was a science teacher with the science cluster for 17 years, and I taught fourth grade before that.
I said, Jesse, I was your science teacher in third and fourth grade, you and your brother Andre, and you were both in my public speaking club at PS86. I did that for 12 years, just like I'm doing at the Chinese Center. And he's a Toastmaster.
Not only was a Toastmaster, he was an officer. Oh, wow. And he must be in his 30s now.
And he's in a club at Elmhurst, at Elmhurst Hospital all these years. He's the past president of the club, and he's still in Toastmasters. Can you imagine how I felt meeting this kid? I have friends and kids all over the place.
I was in Center Pizza, Little Neck and Horace Harding, three years ago. I was going to a Lions meeting. I had a little bit of time, so I ran in to get something to eat.
So I'm sitting there, and this Bengali guy comes up to me, and he says, Ms. Fern? Now, I worked at a school in Flushing in an afterschool program for 12 years, teaching science and public speaking. Same thing. I said, yes.
He said, my three kids were in your public speaking club at PS24. They're all college graduates. He said, my daughter can get up in front of a group and speak, because she was in your public speaking club when she was in second grade.
Unbelievable. Second grade, even. I mean, that's huge.
To get a head start like that is big. This is what I do. I love the little kids.
In school, when I started stubbing, I would go into the classes, and I would do public speaking. I would do the table topics. And it got to the point where this one kindergarten class saw me at the door.
And I'm telling you, that's why I said I'm so lucky. But to get feedback like that from a parent, or to see an actual former student in Toastmasters, it was just amazing. And these Leos at Floral Park High School, I want to do more for them this year.
I keep offering to the other Leo clubs in the district. Nobody's contacted me. So I'm going to stick with Floral Park, and I'll try again this year.
I'll make the offer again. If you want me to come and do a little something for your Leos, I'll be more than happy to. Why don't you ask Terry if you could do one for the adults as well? I spoke to Irene about that, and I said, you should do something for the Floral Park Lions Club.
And I think I'm going to push for it this year. But two years ago, Irene put together, it wasn't necessarily for the Lions, but she put together at the Floral Park Library. A public speaking workshop for an hour or two.
And it was advertised at the library, however they advertise their program. And Irene and I, and two other Toastmaster friends, we did a presentation, maybe 20 people came from the community. It was very well received.
We did our schtick on how to put a speech together, and we did table topics. And I said to Irene, we should do that again, but we should definitely do something for the club. But you want to know something? We'll have to lock the door.
Wherever we do it, we're going to have to lock the doors and put gates up so nobody runs out. I'm not getting up in front of a group and speaking. Oh, that's funny.
No, no. So, well, I want to thank you so much. I'll put a few reference links up.
And I look forward to meeting you in person. I look forward to hopefully being at a workshop you're giving locally. And I thank you for all your work that you've done.
I am totally honored. I had no idea how this was going to work. I wasn't sure.
I really, so this was great. I love talking about myself. So it's worked out great.