Debates of June 8, 2006 (day 8)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you can see in the gallery today, we have a very special person joining us along with her kindergarten class, friends and family. That is Mrs. Toni Auge from Range Lake North School.

Mr. Speaker, for 41 marvellous years Mrs. Auge has taught literally hundreds, or even in the thousands, of young minds a lifelong love of learning and caring for others around them. She began teaching in 1965 in New Zealand and has taught in Yellowknife since 1970. She taught in the teepee class at Mildred Hall and at the Yellowknife Playschool, at Sissons, and since it opened in 1993 at Range Lake North School. In fact, one of her first Yellowknife students at the teepee is now the principal of the teepee school and three of her former students join us today.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the truly blessed are those fortunate enough to find their calling in life early and spend their working life doing what they were gifted to do, especially if in doing so one can make a real difference in the lives of our precious young. Without a doubt, Mrs. Auge has done that. She’s loved by all, especially those chosen people who were lucky to have her as their teacher, but also the parents and fellow teachers.

Mr. Speaker, on a personal note, where I grew up in another world, kindergarten schooling was reserved for the wealthy and privileged in private schools. But in a vicarious way, I feel like I got my kindergarten experience with Mrs. Auge and I want to thank her for that. Over the last six years as an MLA, she has welcomed me to her beautiful class at Range Lake North School every year to see and learn and experience the little haven she creates for her children. I have watched in awe the way she transforms these little preschoolers into competent, creative, mature first graders who are ready to take on the world. Some of them are joining us today and her latest class joins us today.

Mr. Speaker, in recent years she made it her business to mentor new kindergarten teachers to prepare them for the impossible task of filling her enormous shoes and that shows what kind of a person, a responsible and respectable citizen she is. Mr. Speaker, may I take this opportunity to invite this House in expressing our deep appreciation to Mrs. Auge for her singular and distinguished career of 41 years and in wishing her and her husband, Joe Auge, and her family the very best in her well-deserved retirement, with which I have no doubt she will create a whole new life following her jubilant motto: life is what you make of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause