Thanks to the volunteers

Dear Editor

My name is Bonnie Franklin. I'm the current Nevada R-5 CTA (Community Teachers Association) president. I was born in Perryville, Mo., and was raised in a large "working" family.

My husband and I moved to Nevada seven years ago. All of my life, my parents have taught me to volunteer my talents and time to help others. This is why I'm writing to you today.

This week is Public School Volunteer Week, and I want to recognize the wonderful volunteers we have at Nevada R-5.

I started working at Nevada R-5 six years ago. At the time, I knew Nevada was a great district to work for, but never did I know then, that I would call Nevada R-5 family.

The first building I started working in was Nevada R-5 Heartland. I worked with wonderful people that helped me see that there's more to life when giving back. Even though we didn't have local volunteers that were able to come into the school, we still had people giving their time and resources. Some of the colleagues' families would help create bulletin boards, label books for the library, or help teachers find supplies for their classroom.

After working three wonderful years at Heartland, I faced a very difficult decision as I transferred to Nevada Middle School. Today, I still work there as the seventh grade special education teacher. My first year was crazy. I had parents and colleagues coming to me and asking what they could do to help me. I never really thought I would have so many helping hands.

Since I've had an active role in CTA, I've found more people who volunteer their time and talents. Just this past month, Vernon County Relay for Life and Nevada R-5 Relay for Life hosted the first annual "Dancing with Our Stars," which was a huge success for the community and the organizations involved.

My husband and I attended and had a wonderful time. There were a lot of volunteer hours given by the community and teachers. From practices, selling tickets, making a meal, and organizing the night's events, no one could keep count of how many hours it took to put on this event.

Even though I'm not in all the school buildings, I hear of different things that happen because of people in Nevada, Mo., who volunteer their time to help make our school district a better place for our kids, teachers, and staff.

I know that I can't list them all, but I know several volunteers in this community that consistently volunteer their time. At Bryan Elementary, Barbara Henry comes in every week to read with students. The Bryan PTO (Parents Teacher Organization) has many volunteers that help with events like "Big Truck Night."

At Benton Elementary, PTO helps them organize events as well. Also, Tiffany Pommier, a teacher, volunteers her time and talent to help young singers in the Benton Beats vocal group.

At Truman Elementary, several parents volunteer to help in classrooms by reading, helping with classroom parties, or simply by being involved in their children's lives. Several teachers also help organize the Young Authors' Conference.

At Nevada Middle School, Kim Niestrath helps teachers make copies or reads with students. Mary Mitchell works with the sixth graders on their Dream Books and brings wonderful guest speakers to Nevada. Other parents and volunteers help with the science fair, the choir, and Girl emPOWERment Club. At Nevada High School, Linda Emery comes in every Wednesday and volunteers in Mrs. Bessey's Read 180 room. Tom Schmidt has volunteered to videotape Male Handsome Pageants and Renaissance assemblies for us in the past. His wife, Pete, has taken pictures before and made videodisks for us to sell.

At NRTC, parents and local committee leaders help with judging when it comes to FFA, FBLA, etc. At Nevada R-5 Heartland, several teachers and paraprofessionals' family members help by designing bulletin boards and getting teachers' classrooms ready each year.

I know that I can't think of or mention all of the wonderful volunteers that help with our district. However, I want you to know that, as the CTA president and a teacher, I appreciate every thing you do to make our lives easier and to provide our students with a safe and happy place to go to every day.

Thank you!

Bonnie Franklin

Nevada CTA President