-
Community
Community
CRYSTAL FALLS – Fortune Lake Camp kicks off its new season of bi-monthly gatherings for senior adults Monday, September 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Marking the beginning of a new school year, the focus will be on education - not in the U.S., but overseas. Evelyn Gathu and her mother Charlene Bendick will share their impressions and experiences living and teaching in 11 different countries.
Currently the Director of the Crystal Falls District Library, Gathu taught English and drama for 16 years in six different countries. A 1991 graduate of Forest Park High School, Gathu received her BA from Carthage College, Kenosha, Wis.
While employed by a school in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. she and her mother were inspired by workshops given by international teachers at a Wisconsin Teacher Convention. Gathu was hired the next year through an Overseas Job Fair at the University of Iowa. During her 16 years abroad, Gathu taught in Taiwan, Syria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Venezuela. She also taught on a remote island in Alaska which was part of the overseas program.
Gathu met and married her husband Jimmy in Pakistan, a mathematics/computer science instructor. They are parents to eight-year-old Joah, who was born in Pakistan and is now a third grader at Forest Park Elementary School.
Gathu credits her mother Charlene Bendick for encouraging her to take her teaching skills abroad. Bendick graduated from Northern Michigan University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science degree, a minor in geography, and earned an MA in 2009. After teaching two years in Wisconsin schools, Bendick followed her own earlier advice to her daughter and joined the ranks of international teachers. During her nine-year tenure abroad, Bendick taught mathematics in Mexico, Paraguay, Egypt, China and Myanmar.
The mother/daughter team will provide up-close and personal reflections of life and learning in lands far from our borders.
Call 906-214-2267 or email hospitality@fortunelake.org to make lunch reservations. A donation of $10 is requested.