EllenWhite enjoyed a successful career in education. Initially, she was an elementary school teacher and eventually, she became a university-level educator. In her retirement, with her devoted husband Bruce, Ellen chose to spend her winters in Texas. In the early years of the Canadian Snowbird Association, Ellen contacted the CSA office and pointed out that there was an entire community of snowbirds in Texas that the association had overlooked. The CSA responded by putting her to task and simply stated that if she made arrangements for them to conduct a meeting in her area, they would be there. As an executive member of the Winter Residents Club of Brownsville, Texas, Ellen was poised and ready tomake the engagement a reality. And that is when the CSA Winter Information Forum was born. Members of the CSA board’s executive committee − with the support of Medipac Travel Insurance − brought their literature, their answers and some notable entertainment to McAllen and the job was done. One might expect that Ellen would have been satisfied that she had successfully introduced the CSA to theWinter Texan community, but she wasn’t and she didn’t stop there. Ellen applied to become a member of the CSA Board of Directors, was nominated and subsequently appointed to the board in 1996. She then began pursuing her next goal − bring Snowbird Extravaganza to the Rio Grande Valley. She ultimately achieved that in 1998 and the Winter Texans’ Snowbird Extravaganza returned to the area, year after year, through 2020. Ellen was also instrumental in establishing Canadian-based information sessions aptly named CSA Days, and travelled throughout Ontario presenting the association’s initiatives to various groups and organizations throughout the province. Quietly, Ellen rose through the ranks of the Canadian Snowbird Association Board of Directors by participating on the government relations committee, the special events committee and holding the position of chairperson of the communications committee. She was appointed to the board’s executive committee as secretary and was ultimately acclaimed as president in 2002. In April of 2001, the Government of Canada established the Commission for the Future of Health Care in Canada. One of Ellen’s first initiatives in her position as president was to ensure that the interests of travelling Canadians were not overlooked by the commission. Ellen made repeated requests for an audience with the commission’s chair, Mr. Roy Romanow, which went unanswered. Ellen did not let that slow her down. She penned an open letter to the former premier of Saskatchewan and distributed it through various media channels in Canada, including CSANews magazine. The open letter reiterated the sentiment that Canadian residents outside of Canada are entitled to the same health-care services that they would be provided if they were home. She then followed up by establishing a grading system evaluating the delivery of various health-care services inside Canada and abroad by both the federal Government and each provincial and territorial health-care system. That was the inaugural edition of the Canadian Travellers’ Report Card, “An evaluation of government policy and practice for Canadians who travel.” This report card and its standards of measurement are revisited and evaluated by the CSA every two years. Once Ellen had evaluated and established a grade for all of the health-care systems in Canada, she packed her bags and visited each province and territory in the country to meet with government representatives and cabinet ministers to discuss their grades and point out where there was room for improvement. What else would you expect from a teacher? Ellen also appeared before the House small business committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on behalf of all travelling Canadians to argue that the length of time permitted by B1 and B2 Visitor Visas for Canadian visits should not be reduced from six months to 30 days. That was a close one! No one wants to remember the atmosphere in the United States after the fall of 2001. But, at the time, it was daunting and uncertain. Ellen rose to the challenge, put herself on the line and protected the snowbird way of life. Ellen passed away peacefully on January 21, 2022 at the age of 95. We are pleased that her life’s work was recognized when she received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award in 2017. And we are sure that there have been countless other accolades that she enjoyed in her professional life and, most important, she had the love and respect of her family. She will be missed. OBITUARY Ellen White APRIL 3, 1926 – JANUARY 21, 2022 CSANews | SUMMER 2022 | 61
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