A typical UFT member who attended the union’s New Retiree Luncheon on Nov. 21 after teaching for 30 years survived 10 chancellors, six versions of the teacher evaluation system, charter school proliferation and other challenges.

But most important, UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the more than 500 attendees at the luncheon at the New York Hilton Midtown, is the impact they have had on thousands of children.

“Each one of you has changed the lives of thousands of students,” he said. “That’s what you walked in on Day One for and that’s what you were able to accomplish.”

He encouraged the newly minted retirees to enjoy leisurely breakfasts, take advantage of favorable travel rates in October and March, and let go of any unpleasant memories of unhelpful administrators or inane mandates.

He and Murphy urged retirees to stay involved with the union by joining the RTC. No other union in the country works as actively with and involves retirees like the UFT, Mulgrew said. In their event folders, the retirees received a catalog of the hundreds of Si Beagle continuing education courses and other information about UFT retiree benefits.

Murphy noted that UFT retirees play a key role in the union’s political operations, because they have more flexibility with their time to help get out the vote locally and around the country and work on issues they care deeply about, such as lowering pharmaceutical drug prices.

Erica Berger

Lynn Lospenuso, the new director of UFT Welfare Fund Retiree Programs, addresses the group.

“When you retire, when you turned in your keys and you hung them on that hook, you didn’t hang your social conscience on the hook with it. You kept that,” Murphy said.

Murphy asked members who had served as chapter leaders to stand up for a special toast to thank them for their service. Fifty chapter leaders received certificates from the union in honor of their work.

New retiree Joanne Felix, who taught Spanish at MS 61 in Brooklyn for 23 years, said she plans to stay involved with the UFT in retirement because she appreciates what it does. “People who don’t support the union don’t understand that without the union, you’re going naked, basically. You have no cover,” she said.

Christine Poser received a shoutout from Murphy at the luncheon because he taught her American history at Tottenville HS. Murphy made history fun, said Poser, who retired from IS 24 on Staten Island.

As a school librarian for 33 years, Poser had the chance to cultivate the students’ special interests through reading and book clubs. “I had a great career,” she said.

Math teacher Monica Mestre-Soto retired after 34 years working in New York City public schools, first as a school aide, then as a paraprofessional and ultimately as a teacher. She said she is busy remodeling her apartment and has a few trips planned — Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

Erica Berger

Eileen Pierce (left), who retired from PS 178 in Manhattan in June, takes a photo before the luncheon with fellow PS 178 retiree Dalia Gonzalez, who carries the “and so the adventure begins” bag she received as a retirement gift.

Retiree Sarah Vdokakes took a day off from substitute teaching in Harlem to attend the luncheon. She spent the last eight years of her 32-year career teaching pre-K in an integrated co-teaching class with the same co-teacher. “I had the best collaborative partnership that I ever had in my entire career,” she said of her last assignment.

Not long after retiring from PS 4 in Washington Heights in July, Vdokakes got a call from an assistant principal at her old school asking her if she would return as a substitute. She fills in four, sometimes five, days a week at that school and another in the district. She likes maintaining connections with the school community, she said, but substitute teaching is different because she has less prep work to do.

“My daughter tells me every day that I failed at retirement,” Vdokakes said with a smile.