Recognizing individual excellence

Times Reporter 

 

On Oct. 18 Strathmore Parent Link nurse Fern Brecht was awarded with the Aspen HOPE Individual of Excellence Award, in a ceremony held at Fort Calgary. 

A young girl whose family was helped by an Aspen staff member inspired the HOPE award. Despite the fact that she and her family were receiving support, it was the stories of the other families that moved Hope. It was because of her big heart, and a desire to recognize her that the Hope Awards were created. 

Rhonda Rhys-Doering, Jeanette MacKay and Leonor Ortega nominated Brecht for the award. 

In 1984 Aspen, a charitable human service agency was established. Today Aspen serves over 5,000 clients annually and the Strathmore Hand in Hand Parent Link Centre is one of the many programs offered. 

“Fern is dedicated to enhancing the lives of young children in our community through her own work as an Early Childhood Nurse with Alberta Health Services and through her work collaborating with other agencies such as ourselves to provide preventative programming which will support and enrich the lives of families,” said Rhys-Doering.

Brecht began the Baby Talk program as a way to provide new parents with information and links to support within the community. Parent Link took over the responsibility for the program in 2011, which is offered once a week for two hours. 

 “She (Brecht) is still very much involved with the program, presenting a topic of discussion once a month for the new parents such as teething, safety and birth stories,” said Ortega.

“Fern has been invaluable in helping us with referrals when we have families with children who need further evaluation as indicated through a voluntary screening process we use called Ages and Stages Developmental Screening,” said MacKay.

Rhys-Doering, MacKay and Ortega all agree Brecht is a tireless worker and when she is not able to collaborate through her workplace,  she switches to volunteer time to get things done. She is always updating her education and training through various workshops in order to even better serve the families.   Call Parent Link at 983-0076 for information about Baby Talk and the other free services and supports available to children 0-6 and their families.