Friends and co-workers gathered at the Chestermere Recreation Centre on June 11th to bid farewell, or arriverderci in the Italian tongue, to long-time employee Laura Brankovich. To honor the lady with Italian roots the space was decorated with miniature Italian flags at each table and a wishing fountain with baguettes artistically piled around the base.
Following Laura Brankovich’s arrival at the Recreation Centre, there was a leisurely luncheon followed by toasts from Patti Brown, Christopher Steves (Deputy Mayor), Randy Patrick (Town CAO) and two Italian ballads sung by Mel Porter. Two gifts were given Laura Brankovich during these toasts. The first, from Christopher Steves was a charming Christmas ornament in the shape of a snowflake with the faces of her friends sketched on a circle in the middle of the snowflake. The second, presented by Randy Patrick, was a beautiful bench with a plaque reading ‘Laura’s Bench’; a token of her hard work for the Town of Chestermere.
Laura Brankovich’s list of achievements for the Town of Chestermere is long and excellent. As you can see, she has shared a lot with the community of Chestermere.
• One of the founders of YELL.
• Completed a community assessment.
• Named the ‘Christmas with Dignity’ pageant.
• Co-founder of the ACE Committee (Active Creative Engaged Community), Chestermere Art Days, and the Staff Christmas Baking Exchange.
• First Community Development Manager for TOC, First Social Planner for TOC, and the First Community Recreation Manager for TOC.
• Chair for the Healthy Communication Initiative (HCI), author and analyst of the Two Full Community Surveys for TOC, community consultant and author of the Town’s First Social Plan, and the Project Manager of the Original/Temporary Mountain Bike Skills Park.
Patti Brown had this to say of her friend/employee “Laura has worked for the Town of Chestermere for about 7 years, her position was social planner. She did all of the social planning for the community. What that means is social programming for social needs and social infrastructure of the community. Given that the community is so young and growing so quickly that was a very big job the last seven years. To put in place the foundation for the community; that’s what she’s been leading the last seven years.
She has done a community assessment early on in her time with the town she has two full community surveys, which were very well responded to. She’s written the very first social planner for the Town of Chestermere. She’s just finished completing writing the master recreation plan for the town. She’s done a lot of firsts in her time here. Because of the time in our development when she first arrived here there’s been a big growth spurt and a lot of catching up to do and a lot of planning for the future. She’s been part of all of that. It’s been a very important role for the town and she’s put a lot of things in place that are going to help the rest of us continue implementing as we go forward.
Laura has been working in the field of community development and social planning for 38 years and has a lot of experience and we are very fortunate to have had her for the last few years before she retired.”
However, retirement as we know isn’t really in the cards for Laura Brankovich. About 3 years ago Mrs. Brankovich took a four month leave of absence to attend courses in Italy and is planning on doing so again in the future. Italy is her second home and has a special place in her heart, certainly an excellent reason for her fluency in the Italian language. Laura Brankovich and her husband live in High River and as a frequent volunteer she became quite involved with the recovery efforts since the May flooding of last year. Mrs. Brankovich will also be doing contract work for other communities.
Chestermere will miss this wonderful lady and thanks her for the work she’s done on its behalf over these last 7 years.
