Great volunteers make for great schools

Happy National Volunteer Month! This is a great time to honor our many wonderful volunteers who selflessly give of themselves to help make a better and brighter world. As volunteer Marjorie Moore stated, “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.” Our community is fortunate to have the combination between an amazingly talented and diverse population and many people who generously volunteer their time and talents. This combination makes our little area of the world a much better place to live, work, and play.

Thank you to all of you who have helped in our schools over the years. You have helped create better readers and writers and more confident math students. You have helped students learn real-life, hands-on skills like cooking, sewing, carpentry, physical skills, musical talents, foreign language, and more. You have helped the next generation become interested in sustainable living through gardening and agriculture. You have invested in helping our students learn the importance of organization, and of beauty and goodness. In other words, you have helped create the next generation of independent citizens who can make educated and well-thought through decisions, and who will have the skills and ambition to continue to make our community strong. As teachers, we gain so much from your unbridled enthusiasm as you share your passions. We learn much from your expertise, and we appreciate your willingness to share it. I feel very blessed for the numerous parent volunteers who have helped in my classrooms for the past many years, and I’m sure that other teachers do, also.

Thank you to those of you who come into our classrooms on a regular basis. Both teachers and students look very forward to your assistance. Thank you to those who come in when you have a rare day off. We recognize that your time off is precious, and we appreciate that you want to spend it in our classrooms. Thanks, too, to those of you who are able to help out with lengthy one-time projects.

A special thanks goes to the following two volunteers who worked tirelessly with our students for a few weeks last fall. We think of you every day when we see students enjoying the fruits of your labors. Retired teacher, Pete Tomco, helped our 3^rd grade students build a playhouse to give as a gift for our kindergarten play area. This was a huge undertaking, but Pete cheerfully guided the students through rain, sleet, and snow to help the students measure wood, pound nails, check angles, and finish an adorable playhouse, complete with a front porch. Both the 3^rd graders and the kindergartners benefitted greatly from Mr. Tomco’s volunteer efforts, and the third graders gained new skills that they will continue to build upon through the years.

At the same time, farmer Dave Church volunteered his time to help students create a school garden. Day after day, he cheerfully hauled in trucks of composted soil and helped teach the students how to use shovels and wheelbarrows in order to fill the raised garden beds. Now that it’s Spring, he and his wife, Michelle, are helping our classes prepare for gardening season.

There are many more examples of wonderful projects that volunteers have been instrumental in helping with across the Valley. Know that your efforts are appreciated.

As we celebrate National Volunteer Month, let’s recognize those who give of themselves to help others, and let’s motivate others to join the effort. The famous American biochemist and cancer researcher, Helen Dyer, stated it well when she said, “Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action. These actions shape and mold the present into a future of which we can all be proud.”

Happy National Volunteer Month! Thank you for investing in education and the healthy future of our community.

Diana Sloan-Basner is an elementary teacher at Birchtree Charter School. She feels incredibly blessed by the numerous volunteers who have shared their time and talents in her classroom.