Issue 10, December 2009

Employee Profile: Donna Stewart, Technical Assistant and Ballroom Dancer

Donna joined VEMCO in October of 2006, after spending a number of years working as a full-time stay-at-home mother and raising her three children. Prior to taking time from full-time employment to concentrate on her career as a Mom, Donna's passion for drawing and creating saw her pursue an early career as a Commercial Artist.

Having raised her family and needing a means to support her love of travel, Donna returned to work full-time and accepted the position of Technical Assistant at VEMCO. Her duties run the full gamut of transmitter production from sub-assembly of components to all elements of tag assembly on the "transmitter line" to testing tags for customer orders. Donna takes great pride in her work at VEMCO fondly recalling her father's advice, 'a job worth doing is worth doing well'.

Outside of work, you can often find Donna hiking, kayaking, swimming, beach combing, gardening and exploring the great outdoors of Nova Scotia. Donna's travels have taken her across Canada, the US, the Caribbean, Western and Eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean. Next on her list are Portugal and Spain. Beyond travel and the great outdoors, one of Donna's most memorable accomplishments was participating in a "Joints in Motion" marathon to help raise money for arthritis research in honour of her daughter, the family's 'arthritis hero'.

While Donna's interests also encompass sewing, knitting, reading and listening to eclectic music, her favourite pastime by far is ballroom dancing. Over the years, she has taken many different styles of dance lessons but ballroom is the one she returns to and enjoys the most. For the past two and a half years, Donna has been taking lessons three nights a week at a local studio where you will find her and her current dance partner working hard to steadily improve and achieve their goals.

"Dancing not only keeps me fit but it is a great social activity, builds confidence and, according to studies, keeps the brain sharp," says Donna. "Dancing makes me very happy, makes me feel alive!"