EMPOWERING & EDUCATING OTHERS IS IN HER DNA
BY KAREN BLISS
Toronto’s Anne-Marie Quan normally interviews people for the CARP – Scarborough Chapter newsletter. She suggested and implemented new features for the monthly email blast, which she writes under the byline Anne-Marie Q, as well as contributes uncredited items.
“When I started 10 months ago, I didn’t realize my role would develop as far as it did because I took on a lot and I started writing articles in the newsletter and it just grew and grew. I just got fascinated by it,” Quan tells CARP.
“A lot of newsletters don’t have fresh material; they just have events. I usually write two articles a month, one about a business and one about an event that I think seniors would be interested in,” she says of profiles, such as last summer’s community hub Scarborough Proud and the donation pick-up and drop-off nonprofit Furniture Bank. “I want to bring different perspectives of the world to them.”
Now the tables are turned on her, as the outgoing 67-year-old is profiled for CARP’s national newsletter. During the interview she revealed she had just resigned from her position on the board of CARP – Scarborough for health reasons.
“What my hope is for 2026 is that I continue writing articles,” she says, adding that she plans to continue attending non-board meetings.
Rudy Sankovic, who has been president of the Scarborough Chapter for a year, then sent out the news about Quan’s resignation to its members, praising her for making “an incredible impact” to the association so quickly.
“I am deeply grateful for the time, energy and dedication that Anne-Marie has contributed in such a short time. She has been an integral part of our team, offering insight, leadership and genuine commitment to serving our seniors community,” he wrote, in part, adding that Quan secured most of the chapter’s guest speakers and will continue to make referrals.
“And best of all, she was well liked by everyone.”
Just one conversation with Quan and it’s easy to see why. She is confident but also easy-going, friendly, forthcoming and chatty. She discovered since her divorce the importance of building relationships, of having a support network, if you are a senior living on your own, and one of the ways of doing that, she believes, is by caring about others and simply asking how they are and what they need — or sharing what she needs.
“When I was married, I never connected with people because I had a husband,” she says. “When I got divorced, it’s like, ‘You will be fine because as you grow, you will meet different supportive people.”
Her single status in her 60s provides a different perspective for other seniors who support themselves. She reaches out to them. They help each other.
“In 2022, I broke my wrist,” she recounts. “I was off work for a while. So, it got me thinking, ‘How do I want to spend my retirement?’ I had done volunteer work before, but not much. I knew I wanted to focus on seniors because if I were married with kids, I know they would watch out for me. I don’t have that. So, I realized I had to be ‘selfish’ in a way to find out what’s happening with seniors, but also advocate and help others.”
She retired in 2023 at 65 after working at TD Bank on the financial side of project management. In her early career, she says her bosses “never really fully appreciated what I could do. I had all these built-up skills in me and the last few years, I had a great manager at TD, and I was able to show it, and they appreciated it.
“So, what I’ve found in the volunteer work I’ve done since retirement is I have a lot to contribute and I’m respected. I was on the board of a legal clinic. I don’t know anything of laws to help injured workers, but I bring the part of a non-lawyer of how people feel.”
Quan says what she’s done every time she’s on a board is have empathy.
“ I ask, how are the staff doing? Are they okay? And I always bring in treats for them, like cookies at Christmas, because we’re on the board, but they’re also the staff. So, I got to know them.
“What I wanted to do was to understand the issues facing seniors. So, for the first year of retirement, I [looked] at a lot of websites [to learn about] issues affecting seniors, but more on a health level. And then as I got more into my second and third year, I started digging, ‘Where am I going to live? What happens to me? Power of attorney, what happens?’ And I think I come from that mindset because I’m on my own.”
She says she had done a lot of board work with seniors but hadn’t heard of CARP until she came across a newsletter in which Sankovic put out word that he was looking for volunteer board members.
“I sent him my information of why I should be on the board, and then he interviewed me, and said, ‘You may want to think about it,’ and I said, ‘No, no, I want to be on the board.’ I told him right away. I don’t think he realized how good I would be because I did a lot of work on the board. I just jumped into it and I’m fortunate that he was supportive.”
In addition to writing content for the newsletter, and attending three meetings a month — a board meeting, a virtual meeting and an in-person — Quan started reaching out to people to become speakers.
“I’m like a talent scout; I scout, I get the talent, I send it to him,” she says. “Rudy always said, have I seen them present? and Rudy would go by my opinion because I’d tell him why they are good. So, we’ve had a lot of virtual and in-person speakers, and I found most of them because I belong to other committees and I talk to people and I say, ‘This would be a good person.’ So, it’s great being at CARP. It taught me a lot.
“It’s great to get involved with seniors. It’s great to help. We have to stick together to bring issues that are important to us. I think CARP is a great organization because there’s a structure, but you need good leadership – like in Rudy.”
Quan didn’t expect to resign so suddenly, but she will continue to be involved, just not at the committed board level, she says. Right about now, she is on vacation in Thailand.
“I have enjoyed being on the board. It’s been a lot of work. I’m leaving for health reasons. I’ve realized that I cannot help put as much into the board because I need to get help.”
