Several times lately, I have seen nationally televised vignettes about a retired educator living in a chicken coop because she could not afford anything better.

As the story goes, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, a renounced retired educator, the first woman principal in a high school in the state of California, was searching for a former colleague and found her living in a chicken coop.

(MRTF) is an investment for our future. A gift to MRTF ultimately gives back in the form of services provided for the membership and opportunities for future generations of educators.

As Dr. Andrus stressed the only way to get the most out of our membership is to give something of yourself. The MRTF is prudent with the money it receives from the generosity of its members and encourages all MRTA members and units to make a 2012 contribution to help eliminate the mortgage on our office facility. A generous tax-deductible contribution will insure your legacy for the future. As members we need to communicate a sense of ownership in our building and the organization and the value of new members at all levels–unit, regional, and state.

The Foundation will continue to concentrate its efforts on paying our office facility mortgage, having fundraising activities and to encourage businesses, corporations and individuals to make tax deductible contributions to one of MRTF’s four fund choices, building, scholarship/grant, general and endowment.

Upon finding the address, the principal set out to find her former colleague. The address was in an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. Reaching the address and knocking on the door, she was told that her friend did not live in this house but instead lived out back. What she found that day – a former colleague living in a chicken coop – would eventually spawn an American Institution, the National Retired Teachers Association with units in all 50 states.

She found the former teacher not enjoying her retirement years as she should have been, but rather living in conditions that caused Dr. Andrus to decide that retired educators needed and deserved a support group.

In 1947 Dr. Andrus was the founder of the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA) and became its first president. Andrus and her colleagues focused their efforts to advocate on behalf of retired educators’ quality of life and any issues involving education and educators. She believed that the only way to reap the most from life is to give something of yourself. With this in mind she created the motto: To Serve, Not to Be Served.

Like Dr. Andrus, as educators, we each have our own life story. Stories filled with relationships and events that help shape who we are and what we believe to be true about public education and educators. Dr. Andrus and her RTA organizations became champions for seniors and educators.

In the tradition started by our founder, as MRTA members, we embrace the purposes of the Missouri Retired Teachers Association and Public School Personnel, “To Serve, Not to Be Served.” We give credit to Dr. Andrus that MRTA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots membership organization that helps retired educators to improve their quality of life. An investment in the Missouri Retired Teachers Foundation (MRTF) is an investment for our future. A gift to MRTF ultimately gives back in the form of services provided for the membership and opportunities for future generations of educators.