I want to add my name to the many members who look forward to the arrival of Renaissance each season. This classy magazine is always enjoyable, relevant, helpful, current, easy to read and just a pleasure to hold! I particularly appreciate Elizabeth Baird’s wonderful recipes. Sincere thanks to all at RTOERO who have a hand in producing this amazing magazine.
—Mary McAuliffe, District 24 Scarborough and East York
A response to your article “Fighting Back Against Period Poverty” in the spring issue of Renaissance: I spent the winter of 2023 visiting my cousin in Katikati, New Zealand. His wife, Christine, took me along one day to a Days for Girls gathering. We chit-chatted while we assembled a huge pile of sanitary pads, then put them into colourful bags containing the items mentioned in your article. Christine and I returned home loaded with flannel, waterproof lining material and a template for making more. She and I cut, sewed and put together over one hundred pads, ready to be “bagged.” These Days for Girls kits were destined for Fiji and Vanuatu, islands in the South Pacific. Here, the sanitary supplies are distributed through the schools, where women teachers give the students a crash course in how to use the bag contents.
The men of Katikati are also involved. The local Rotary Club buys the flannel, waterproof liner material and other necessary items. The ladies do the rest.
I had never heard of Days for Girls before. I thoroughly enjoyed my participation in such a useful project and will be sharing your article with the Katikati group.
—Nancy Sorensen, District 15 Halton
Renaissance magazine is eagerly read from cover to cover when it arrives. It is very well written and offers seniors many interesting and useful features so we can stay healthy and engaged.
I would like to add how I dealt with my financial checklist when I became single. I took four workbooks and wrote the following titles on them: “household edible,” “household not edible,” “clothing” and “holidays, including going out with friends to concerts and any other form of entertainment.” I kept track of all my expenses for one year and in the end tallied them out against my income from various sources. I realized that I did not need to work anymore, and I left my much-loved teaching job.
I started volunteering in schools in different countries for up to two months – India three times, South Africa and the Cook Islands. A book called Volunteer Vacations was inspiring. It gave me the opportunity to be retired but still help in classrooms with small children.
Keep up your great work.
—Arlette Adam, District 16 City of Toronto
I really appreciated Ylva Van Buuren’s article “Take a Seat” in the winter 2025 issue. It was very timely, in that I had been experiencing some strange postural issues that were interfering with my normally active lifestyle. I pinned the article onto the wall and started doing the exercises daily. I was really pleased when I began to notice an improvement in my posture – and relief from annoying tightness and restriction in my back and hips. Thanks for including this kind of information in Renaissance.
—Sandy Stevenson, District 10 Bruce, Grey, Dufferin
Kudos to Marvin Sandomirsky for opening up about his personal experience in having the courage to leave an abusive relationship. A significant change from his previous career teaching math, economics, marketing and accounting, he acknowledges he’s keeping his brain sharp and is involved in an activity that gives him purpose. I’m delighted that he is enjoying the third chapter of his life so much. Something we all aspire to.
—Stephanie Nielsen, District 14 Niagara
Editor’s Note
In the spring 2025 issue, it was suggested that women weren’t admitted to the forestry program at the University of Toronto until 1980. We have since learned that the first woman graduated from this program in 1967.
