After 18 years leading the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre through growth and change, executive director Nancy Gale is retiring.
Operations manager Vanessa Riplinger said the community is invited to Gale’s retirement celebration on Wednesday, March 27 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the CDC.
“The staff, board and community wants to celebrate her accomplishments,” Riplinger said.
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“Under her stewardship the child development centre saw change, growth and development of services, such as the autism centre and the new playground. She has done incredible things for the CDC.”
Plans for the autism centre were first announced in 2013, after a friend of Gale’s, Cathie Durfeld, secured major funding from the John Gordon Autism Foundation of Vancouver.
At the time, Gale said she anticipated the centre would become a hub for the north.
On May 20, 2015, the $1.2 million centre celebrated its opening.
Gale Riplinger said under Gale’s leadership the CDC was also involved with research projects.
One of those was kicked off in April 2016 with the University of British Columbia, the University of Calgary, and the Autism Society of Alberta that looked at services for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
At the time the project was announced, Dr. Anthony Bailey, chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at UBC said the CDC was chosen because the CDC had taken the initiative to set up the autism centre.
Riplinger, who will be replacing Gale as the executive director, said Gale is leaving behind “big shoes to fill.”
“We are all going to miss her,” she said.
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