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About a dozen volunteers show up at the school each day to help wherever they are needed: tutoring students, setting up science experiments, combing down cowlicks for school pictures and bagging popcorn for class celebrations.
While some of the work of the parents, grandparents 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 struggling with reading, writing and arithmetic.
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 Kinnaman. "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 parents 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 morning, as dependable as the school bell, to share her lifelong love of teaching.
"I 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.
At Loveland Primary and Elementary Schools in Loveland, Ohio (pop. 11,677), five dozen volunteers pitch in year-round with Granny's Garden School, which began as one grandma's project to share her passion for gardening and has blossomed into a community treasure.
"My grandkids grew up in my garden and I saw the power of having flowers to pick,'" says Roberta Paolo, 59. In 2002, Paolo asked permission to perk up her grandchildren's schoolyard with some perennials. The enthusiasm of the kids who helped her dig and plant inspired teachers to create four classroom gardens the first year.
Now, each spring, students in first through fourth grades plant 55 individual classroom gardens, each 10 by 20 feet, from which they pick fresh flowers to accompany meals for the homebound and vegetables and herbs for classroom salads and soups. In May, students invite the town to a garden party where they sell plants and crafts and show off their blooming handiwork.
"This is such a worthwhile use of my time," says Jane Gonzales, mother of Andrew, 9, and Alex, 12, who helps tend three classroom gardens. "It's marvelous to see the kids so enthused. They'll eat fresh peas and broccoli right out of the garden."
Gonzales was so impressed by the health and educational benefits that children reap from the gardens that she spearheaded the creation of a nature trail in 2004 through woods behind the school.
"This is a way to be involved in my kids' education and to give back to the community."
Dads, too!
Traditionally, mothers are the chief cupcake bakers and classroom helpers but, at Denham Oaks Elementary School in Lutz, Fla. (pop. 17,081), fathers' efforts are quite visible in an 80-foot-long covered walkway where children are sheltered from rain and sun while they wait for rides home.
"I was looking for a way for the dads to get more involved with their kids at school," says Ricky Spencer, 40, who organized the Dragon Dads Club seven years ago. "All of us work, so we'll do things at night or on a Saturday morning."
The group of 40 fathers raised $16,000, mainly from a golf tournament, to build the aluminum walkway. Teachers e-mail them requests such as a bookshelf that needs assembling. The dads weeded the school courtyard and built a 12-foot-by-16-foot movie screen so they can host "movie nights under the stars" on the school grounds. Families bring lawn chairs and blankets, grill burgers and hot dogs, and enjoy watching a movie together.
A favorite yearly event is "Dad's Day on Campus," when the men arrive as a group and spend the day working on school projects and eating lunch with the students.
"It's nice to see how your kid reacts when you're there and how he's perceived by the other kids and teachers," says Spencer, the father of Ryan, 12, and Connor, 9. "It gives you some perspective."
Caring in the country
Volunteering goes hand in hand with neighborliness at Capay Elementary School near Orland, Calif. (pop. 6,281), a country school nestled among dairy farms and prune and almond orchards. The single-school district, which has 137 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, is the heartbeat of the community.
"We don't have a lot of families and most of the parents get involved with volunteering at the school or Little League or 4-H or the fire department," says Julie Breault, PTO president and mother of Jack, 8, and Sam, 11.
Volunteers built ball fields on the school grounds, installed an underground sprinkler system for the lawn, and sold enough cookies and spaghetti dinners to buy new swings and slides for the playground.
"Parents do what they can, when they can," Breault says.
Significant Adults
Research shows a direct link between parental involvement and a student's success in school.
"Family structures and lifestyles are different 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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