THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605100216
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 30 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Wendy Young does the same thing now that she did at Cox High School 25 years ago.
``I was in the band, involved with music, choreography,'' said Young, a pianist. ``That's what I did when I was a student and what I do now.''
Lest someone worry that Young has been a slow learner, there is one big difference: She was a student then; she's a volunteer now.
Indeed, Young is such an excellent volunteer that she was selected as the city public schools' Volunteer of the Year for high schools.
Young and two other winners were honored at a banquet at Salem Middle School recently. Kathleen Wheeler of Thoroughgood Elementary School and Karon Orr of Independence Middle School won in their respective categories. Nominees from the city's 81 schools received recognition, dinner and a handshake and speech from the boss. A crowd of about 500 attended the recognition and appreciation dinner. The gathering included spouses, school administrators and friends.
Wheeler set up Thoroughgood's computer lab and helps teachers and students in the lab. She assists in three classrooms, decorates the library every month with a theme for that month and volunteers in the library.
Orr volunteers at Independence to help in the classrooms when she's not working as a substitute teacher. She was an instrumental part of the Flamingo team, a group of sixth-grade classes whose big undertaking was the school yearbook. Orr also helped the Flamingo team design and paint their T-shirts.
School Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney spoke for a few minutes to praise each volunteer and to address recent school issues. ``It would be great to see a headline in the paper that read `Virginia Beach Public School System is alive and well,' '' he told the audience.
Jenney spoke about the recovery of the school system from recent financial woes and the hard work of the volunteers as an example of the spirit that will herald recovery.
K. Edwin Brown, executive assistant, talked in terms every taxpayer can understand: dollars. Brown mentioned the thousands of hours and the millions of dollars in value to the public schools.
The volunteers log about 250,000 hours during the school year at no pay, he said.
Young added, ``If you figure that out, even at a minimum wage, that's over $1 million.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
Wendy Young, the Volunteer of the Year for the city's high schools,
gives her time to Cox High. City schools volunteers log about
250,000 hours during the school year at no pay. ``If you figure that
out, even at a minimum wage, that's over $1 million,'' Young said.
Kathleen Wheeler, above, who helps out at Thoroughgood Elementary,
won the elementary school category. She helps set up computer labs
and decorates the library. Karon Orr of Independence Middle School
won in that cagetory.
by CNB