Wednesday 13 July 2011

Meet Arlene Taylor, Community Outreach Coordinator


I am so thrilled and honoured to have been selected as Outreach Coordinator for DAC. As you know, this position was made possible by the hard work and dedication of our board of directors and strategic planning committee who were successful in obtaining a Trillium grant for the facilitation of this post.

I thought I would take this opportunity to share a little about myself for now with the hopes that I will have the chance to meet many more of our members in due course.

I was raised in East Garafraxa and attended East Garafraxa Central Public School from grade 2 onward with my high school years continuing at Orangeville District Secondary School. After high school I took a gap year to learn and compete with an Olympic show jumper. Following this exciting year I continued my studies at University of Guelph with a focus on English and Sociology. Life got very busy after that with marriage, children and a thriving horse breeding/training operation but I managed to contribute the odd article from time to time to local horse related publications. As my passion for reading and literacy came to the fore, I decided to study library science, journalism and Public Relations through distance education via the internet. This led to my current position at the Orangeville Public Library in programming and research.

I have a keen interest in the arts and literacy, particularly as it pertains to the cultural development in our own region. My hobbies are reading, writing, riding, gardening, cooking and travel. I look forward to the challenge this position entails and to meeting all of you over the coming months.