Annemarie Krauss saying goodbye after 35 years at Lansdowne

Annemarie Krauss might not have followed a career path on the family farm, but her life’s work was all about seeing growth nonetheless.

After 35 years of working at Lansdowne Children’s Centre – most recently in the role of Program Supervisor for Respite Services – Annemarie is taking a well-deserved retirement.

Her start in the child development field actually does have its roots in her agricultural background.

While in high school, Annemarie was a member of the Junior Farmers group.

“At Christmastime, we actually did sleigh rides,” she said. One of the groups they took out were residents at an institution for adults with developmental delays.

“I really enjoyed that outing that we had done, and I thought I'd really like to get into that field,” she said.

In college, Annemarie studied to be a developmental service worker, which enabled her to work with people with different disabilities from birth throughout their whole lives.

“I worked in group homes in that before, but I really wanted to work with kids,” Annemarie said.

“I just feel you have the most impact when they're young – early intervention.”

So, she started working at Lansdowne as a therapy assistant. At the time, her role included speech and language, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

“There was no schooling back then … it was all training or mentoring underneath therapists,” Annemarie said.

Those early mentors were hugely formative in her career; she still counts a number of them as friends to this day.

That was one of the biggest benefits to working at Lansdowne, Annemarie said.

“The friendships that you develop with people over the years at a place like Lansdowne, they’re lifelong.

I've worked with so many fantastic people over the years,” she said. “It's that sense of family … Not only could I grow in my career, but also, I had a Lansdowne family.”

Annemarie did a lot of career growth over the years.

Ongoing training and the ability to move to different positions within the agency meant she was always learning, always growing professionally. Other roles Annemarie held at Lansdowne included service coordination and developmental consultant for infant development.

It's not just her who has experienced growth over the past 35 years; Lansdowne itself has expanded quite a bit, too – both changing facilities, and expanding programs.

Now, the agency is preparing for another big growth milestone with a new building on the horizon.

While she’ll be well retired by the time it opens, “I’ll be here for the grand opening; I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Annemarie said.  

As she prepares to enter this new chapter of her life, Annemarie had some advice to share with those who are just starting out in their careers in the child development field.  

The main thing is to get to know the client families.

“We're here to support the family the best we can. It's important to remember, it's not our agenda or our goals; it's where the family needs us to be.”

She noted that some families are struggling with other concerns, such as food and/ or housing insecurity, and this might make it difficult for them to prioritize focusing on their child’s development.

That’s why it’s so important to not give up, Annemarie said.

“Sometimes you might be the only consistent person in their whole life that's never given up on them,”

she said, noting that there were plenty of times over the years when she would still drop a card off at someone’s home or make another call to them after they’d missed several appointments, just to make sure they knew they mattered to her.

While it can be incredibly hard to keep on showing up in those situations, in the long run, working with those families is “often the most rewarding,” Annemarie said.

“Just remembering that it's not about the numbers and all that; it's about the people and the kids – and every single child I work with is so beautiful.”

The biggest thing to remember, though, is “Life is too short. Only you can make yourself happy. You’ve got to love your job, because you spend a third of your life doing your job,” Annemarie said.

Thankfully, even though the last 35 years has been “a blink of an eye,” for Annemarie, it’s been a good experience, because

“I love my job.”