‘Always hard to say goodbye’ Miss Belle, Yellowknife preschool teacher, retiring

She’s known as Nanay to her preschool students these days, but Miss Belle - who has taught at the Yellowknife Playschool for 16 years - is retiring after 36 years of teaching.

‘Always hard to say goodbye’ Miss Belle, Yellowknife preschool teacher, retiring Maribel Dela Cruz has taught about 500 Yellowknife preschoolers over 16 years Yellowknife Playschool She’s affectionately known as Nanay to her preschool students these days, but Maribel Dela Cruz — who has taught at the Yellowknife Playschool for 16 years — is retiring. By her estimation, Dela Cruz has taught about 500 Yellowknife preschoolers over the years. She says she loves every one of her students, past and present, her retirement brought hundreds of her current and former students to the school to celebrate her.

She’s better known to her students as Miss Belle, or Nanay, a Tagalog term of endearment for a grandmother. She affectionately calls all of her students Apo, a nickname for a grandchild. “I want them to remember me as their grandmother,” Dela Cruz said.

“My heart belongs to them.” Dela Cruz worked as a teacher for 20 years in the Philippines before moving to Yellowknife with her family in 2010. She said she earned awards for her teaching and gymnastics coaching in the Philippines.

Perhaps the best way to show the impact she’s had on the children she’s taught over the years is to look at the numbers. A recent retirement celebration for Dela Cruz and another retiring teacher, saw hundreds of former students and their families crowd the preschool, located on the corner of Burwash Drive and 56 Street. “It was shoulder to shoulder when everybody was here,” said Jill Gilday, executive director of the Yellowknife Playschool.

Gilday said she’s worked as executive director of the preschool for three years, and didn’t have contact information for every one of the preschool’s former students when she sent out the invitations — but it seems it was shared widely among families. “I guess what happened is folks forwarded the invite on, which was wonderful,” Gilday said. “I got 85 RSVPs, and the report that I got was that someone stopped counting at 200.”

At the party, Dela Cruz saw many of her former students, many of whom gave her gifts and cards to celebrate her. “I didn’t say anything that day because I was so happy to see all my former students,” she said. “My heart was overjoyed.

“They gave me lots of pictures.” For Gilday, Dela Cruz's retirement marks the end of an era for the preschool. When Dela Cruz announced her retirement, it made her emotional.

“I’ll just say it was a tear-filled meeting, we both cried,” Gilday said. “Miss Belle has been the absolute heart of the Playschool as long as she’s been here.” “We are happy for her moving on to her retirement.

It’s always hard to say goodbye.” The Yellowknife Playschool term ends on July 22. Dela Cruz says she plans to help clean up the school, then she will travel back home to the Philippines to help take care of her mother.

She says she plans to return to Yellowknife one day.