Letter: Give them a hand

It is time to celebrate our volunteers. They are the wonderful people who step up and give our school district a helping hand.

The week of April 10-16 has been proclaimed National Volunteer Appreciation Week with the theme “Celebrating People in Action.”

This captures the meaning behind this special week — honoring and recognizing people who dedicate themselves by taking action and helping their communities, such as in local schools.

Volunteers play a vital role in the success of our schools. In the past year, they have logged over 20,000 hours of volunteering at the elementary and middle schools.

This makes a real difference for teachers who can focus on their most important job of educating our children. Volunteers copy papers, laminate and prepare materials for classroom activities.

This allows teachers to spend more time in the classroom and less in the workroom. Volunteers assist in the classrooms as well. They help with reading groups, chaperone field trips and lend an extra hand when projects are just too big for one adult to oversee.

This is the time to celebrate these volunteers and to spotlight the impact they have on our schools. Our volunteers range from young children to older adults, UW-River Falls students, Meyer Middle Schools and River Falls High School students.

They are those directly connected to a particular school and those who just want to help out at any of our schools. We are lucky to have so many who inspire our young people by their actions.

My fellow volunteer coordinators are Cortney Hauschildt, Westside Elementary; Heather Bechtold, Rocky Branch Elementary; Heather Spiczak, Public Montessori Elementary; Jenny Karras at Greenwood Elementary; and myself at Meyer Middle School.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped to make a difference in a student’s day.

Tags: town of river falls, opinion, letters, education