Richmond Hill
November 15, 2008 11:10 PM
Kim Zarzour
Josephine Vaccaro-Chang is hoping to revive an old-fashioned concept.
It’s called “face to face contact” and it seems to be increasingly out of style.
Here’s how it works. You put down your blackberry, leave the computer screen, walk away from your desk and ... wait for it ... talk.
In person. Face to face.
This Tuesday, Nov. 18, Mrs. Vaccaro-Chang will meet with other Richmond Hill businesswomen to engage in that old-fashioned past-time. They will exchange handshakes, share laughs and life experiences.
In the end, she hopes, it will help make Richmond Hill a better place.
“I really want to make Richmond Hill feel like a home,” says Mrs. Vaccaro-Chang, who has lived in this community for eight years. “It would be nice if we could have that small-town feeling where everyone knows each other, where we patronize each others’ businesses, and get to know the interesting people who live around us.”
Mrs. Vaccaro-Chang, who runs a small business and is active in her local ratepayer group, has organized the Richmond Hill Women’s Networking Association to help local business women develop relationships and build a sense of community.
“If you’re part of a community then you’re more concerned about what’s going on,” she says. “It doesn’t matter who I meet, there’s always an opportunity to learn from them, and if I can help them, then great. If not, maybe I can help someone in the future.”
Mrs. Vaccaro-Chang says Richmond Hill is full of fascinating women, but it’s difficult to connect in our increasingly isolated society.
“People don’t pick up the phone and call each other anymore.”
The meetings will be informal, an opportunity to share ideas about business and balancing homelife and work. There is no membership fee.
“I’m hoping then that maybe you’ll bump into them at Loblaws or something and you’ll know them.
“I find women are so open and giving,” she says.
The organization, which has 65 members on its growing distribution list, includes women in construction, real estate and design. She says Deputy Mayor Brenda Hogg, Councillor Lynn Foster and Westbrook Community Association president Angel Freedman are involved in the group.
The meeting Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. will be in the community room at the Richmond Hill Police Station (at Major Mackenzie, just west of Yonge).