Rhonda Perry says goodbye to her role with Anglicare FDC after 38 years of service

Anglicare Family Day Care Playgroup Leader Rhonda Perry has recently announced her retirement, marking 38 years of service with the organisation, local news source The Goulburn Post has reported. 

A celebration was held for Ms Perry at Anglicare’s Goulburn Family Day Care Centre at the end of June, significant because the event organiser and Service Educational Leader, Katie Beelen-Smith, was once cared for by Ms Perry at the playgroup. 

Her departure into retirement, while “extremely well deserved”, Ms Beelen-Smith said, “is a loss felt keenly by all of those who have known and loved her during her career.” 

“We wish her all the very best as she moves into this next stage of her life, and we are very grateful for her extensive contributions. We will greatly miss her artistic flair, her dedication to family day care, and her passion as an educator and teacher.” 

Not being fond of the ‘spotlight’, Ms Perry used the occasion to encourage others to consider becoming family day care educators.

“Family day Care has been operating in Goulburn for over 40 years, and I’m very passionate about it as I know it provides quality care for children,” she told the paper. 

“I have hung on in this role for the last three or four years as family day care educators are in such short supply. My hope is that more people in our community put their hands up to become educators too,” she added.

When asked about her greatest joy in the role, she said it was seeing smiles on children’s faces, adding that “if they’re happy, they’re learning and feeling a sense of belonging”.

For more about Anglicare’s Family Day Care service, or to enquire about being a family day care educator, please see here. To read the original coverage of this story, see here.