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Cover Story
“ At hallway tables inside Washington
Elementary School in North Platte, Neb. (pop.
23,878), volunteer Amanda Epley, 28. helps sec
ond-grader Cassy Easley with spelling words while
Milo Shavlik. 81, cuts and glues a food pyramid
with Kyle Jensen, 8. Nearby, volunteer Anna Parks
bundles box tops and soup-can labels to redeem for
school supplies and equipment
About a dozen volunteers show up at the sch<x>l
each day to help wherever they are needed: tutoring
students, setting up science experiments, combing
down cowlicks for schixil pictures and bagging pop
corn for class celebrations.
While some of the work of the parents, grand
parents and other adult volunteers involves physical
labor—such as applying a fresh coat of paint to the
teachers' lounge—their most important gift is guiding
and encouraging individual students who are strug
gling with reading, writing and arithmetic.
Research shows a direct link between
parental involvement and a student’s success
in school.
“Family structures and lifestyles are dif
ferent today,” National PTA President Anna
Weselak says, “but the significant adult in the
child’s life should be involved at school.”
Weselak suggests that even the busiest
parent can find three or four hours a year
to get involved in his child’s school activities,
in addition to being involved in education at
home by reading to his child and checking his
homework.
To get involved, contact your local school
district or parent-teacher organization. Visit
www.ptacentral.org for more information.
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Volunteer tutors help students with their studies at Washington Elementary School in North Platte, Neb.
For students like Cassy, the extra attention and
tutoring makes a world of difference.
“Her vocabulary has improved and her reading
level has gone up," says second-grade teacher Julie Kin
naman. “She has a feeling of pride because she can see
the volunteer’s pride."
Shae Aston, 34. a single mother of one, says
everyone benefits when parents and grandparents
devote a couple of hours each week to school. The
volunteers help students with their studies and busy
teachers with their classrooms while demonstrating
to their own children and grandchildren a valuable
lesson: School is important.
Kids aim to please, says Aston, president of
the North Platte PTA Council. “They see their par
ents there and it makes a difference. When my son
Tanner knows I'm at school, he swells with pride."
The oldest volunteer on campus, Zada Price. 87,
walks three blocks to Washington Elementary each
iolonteers are a
sy ingredient to
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morning, as dependable as the school bell, to share her
lifelong love of teaching.
1 got a little desk when I was 6, and teaching is all
I ever wanted to do, says the former schoolteacher.
Price says the only drawback to being a volunteer
tutor is when students no longer need her help. “As
soon as my kids improve. I don't get to work with
them anymore."
A blooming success
Across America, in elementary schools through
high schools, parents and grandparents man book
fairs and school carnivals, chaperone band trips to
parades, staff concession stands at ballgames and
stitch costumes for plays.
They plant tulips and tomatoes in Loveland,
Ohio, built a covered walkway in Lutz, Fla., and
raised $25,000 for a new playground at a country
school near Orland, Calif.
Page 10
•American Profile
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