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New Business Plan Unveiled

The Enterprise
July 27, 1997
Kay MacDuffee

Look around you. For a small, rural Ontario village, my bet is that home-for-home, resident-for-resident, Palgrave has one of the most surprising and interesting mixes. One that belies its sleepy little ho-hum facade.

Just attending the Palgrave Pond Focus Group meetings, for example, I was impressed by the fact that here were people whom, in almost 25 years in this community, I had never met. Caring, clear thinking, articulate individuals who just wanted to do the right thing.

But this is not my focus for this week. The person I recently discovered in Palgrave is Adeodata Czink. (The name alone demands attention. "Adeodata" means "given by God".) Her CV reads like a Helen MacInnes heroine. Raised in the diplomatic community in Stockholm, she is fluent in English, German, Swedish and Hungarian with a knowledge of French, Spanish, Latin, and Scandanavian languages.

Conducts seminars

She is president of Business of Manners, a company that conducts seminars in international etiquette, cultural differences, social graces, formal dining, customer service and courses for students. She was a fashion model, agency director and teacher at the New York based Barbizon Modeling School. Her first job in Toronto was executive assistant at the Park Plaza Hotel which included greeting royalty, diplomats and foreign guests.

But along with all of this glamour, Adeodata Czink is a well respected, professional musician who managed her own music school for 12 years. She is a soloist in several of the large, Toronto churches and was a founding member and first president of Torontoís Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. I understand from those who have heard her sing a few times in Palgrave United Church that she "has the voice of an angel."

I first met Adeodata over tea in her Maple Lane home where she schooled me in the intricacies of Chinese etiquette before I left for China. We had so much fun that I couldn't believe I was there for lessons. But my lessons were well learned and helped me circumvent a few tricky episodes. Her first rule: Remember you are at all times representing your country (when abroad) and you have only seconds to make a first impression. Make it a good one. Make it easy for the next person who comes along.

Any service club or community group looking for a speaker should seek out this woman. She is warm, funny and has a wealth of fascinating experiences and information, all pertinent to our global perspective. Mrs. Czink (pronounced "zinc") can be reached at 416-971-9754