At the 58th Retired Teachers Chapter Luncheon, retirees acknowledged the visionaries who created the chapter in 1966, celebrated fellow retired members’ activism and got a pep talk urging them to stay involved and “speak into the future” as advocates.

UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr told the roughly 500 retirees gathered for the May 30 luncheon at the New York Hilton Midtown that they are all advocates who need to “stay in the fight.”

“You need to vote and you need to make sure that others do as well,” he said. “That is the way that we will speak into the future.”

The RTC honored 13 retired educators and nurses and recognized retired teacher Jean Damashek on the occasion of her 100th birthday.

Chapter Leader Tom Murphy saluted the “union visionaries in the 1960s who provided everything that we are able to enjoy” and said that today’s retirees “stand on their shoulders.”

He urged the retirees to continue advocating for political change and the rights of seniors, public school educators, students and families.

Jonathan Fickies

Congratulating Luzviminda "Luchie" Canlas (center), a Si Beagle Learning Center coordinator for Queens, on her Edith Potter/Anne Reel Award are Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Murphy and Lynn Lospenuso, the director of the UFT Welfare Fund Retiree Program.

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Nina Tribble, a retiree delegate and RTC Executive Board member, received the Tom Pappas Award. “There are so many people who lead in their lives by encouraging others, and that’s what Nina is about,” Murphy said. “Nina does everything.”

Tribble recounted winning her first election for chapter leader by two votes. Pappas, the former Retired Teachers Chapter leader for whom the award is named, visited her school to talk about the union, helping her gain members’ confidence.

“I’ve received awards and I appreciate everything, but this is like me coming full circle because you guys are my union family and you are my extended family,” she said, her voice catching. “And we can’t stop, and I won’t stop.”

Jonathan Fickies

Retired school counselor Marta Sierra is surrounded by flowers at the conclusion of the luncheon.

Damashek, an educator for 17 years and a UFT member for more than 49, thanked the RTC for the recognition. The mother of four taught at JHS 8 in Queens after her husband died. She attended the event with her daughter Marjorie Damashek Levine, a retired city educator, and Patty Bugland, a retiree who worked with Damashek at JHS 8.

“It has been my privilege to have worked for the Board of Education and to have done what little I could to improve the lives of my students,” Damashek said.

Carmen Alvarez, a former UFT vice president who spearheaded the recent UFT initiative to re-engage retired paraprofessionals in the life of the union, received the Sylvia Levinson Award.

She described the UFT as an inclusive union. “We are an intergenerational, seamless union,” she said. “From pre-service to in service to retiree, we are one powerful union.”

The Federation of Nurses/UFT gave Retiree of the Year awards to Rosemary Scheriff and Ruth Caballero.

Scheriff, who recently retired after a 45-year career, said she plans to continue advocating, “helping today’s and future generations to see the importance of having a voice, for without a union, you really have no voice, and with no voice, there is no room for change.”

Retiree Joseph Sicilian Jr. said he was honored to receive the Joyce Magnus Organization Award, named after an RTC member who was a union stalwart. He said her “spirit is leading us” in the RTC’s work. Magnus died in 2022.

Robin Bacote said she shared her Pearl Berger Award with fellow retirees who staff phone banks. She reminded attendees that they will be in demand this year.

“I encourage all of you to please come out and volunteer,” she said, “because this is going to be a very important election year.”