People Are Good

I'm making quite a stretch here for today's PMM.  That's because I want to talk about my other baby.  Not one of the 5 I gave birth to, but a labor of love still the same.

For those who don't know, 7 years ago I helped start the charter school my children attend.  I currently serve on the board of trustees for the school.  In the early years it was like having a full time job and working overtime, only doing it for free.  It takes up a lot of time.

I have a board meeting tonight.  I don't want to go.  I get ornery just thinking about it.  It is at our recently opened second campus, which isn't exactly close to my home.  I am a tired mom of a newborn.  Currently a sick newborn.  I don't want to go.  I wasn't planning on attending this month, but some important issues that need to be discussed require all members to be in attendance.  And I don't want to go.

It's times like these that I seriously consider stepping down from the board and freeing up my time to focus on other things I would like to do.  And I ask myself, "why don't I resign?"

The obvious answer is that I'm a control freak, and I still want to have a say in the decisions that are made pertaining to the school my children attend.  But there's also the other part:

Last week I told you about Cowgirl and her Science Fair project.  Our Middle School science teacher (Mr. H) was the one at our school who sort of coordinated everything on our school's behalf.  He is not Cowgirl's teacher, as she is still in the Elementary School.  However he was a great advisor for the students in all the grades.  He came into the school several times during days off so that students could come spend all day working on their projects and receiving help from him.  This in itself shows the dedication he has to helping students learn and succeed.  But I never expected that I would receive a phone call from him later in the evening on the day of the Regional competition.  We were all sitting in the living room chatting when the phone rang.  I answered and Mr. H was on the line.  "I just wanted to call and see how Cowgirl did?  Did she have a good experience, and enjoy herself?"  He continued to ask a few more questions about her experience with the judges, and the pre-judging award she had received, then wished us a good night and hung up the phone.

I looked at my husband and said to Cowgirl, "that was sure nice of him to call and check on you, and see how your experience was.  He's such a good guy."  The thing is, I'm pretty sure we weren't the only family to receive a call that night.   Mr. H is the teacher who would have called to check up on each of the students that he hadn't had a chance to talk to during the fair.

That wasn't the end of our conversation though.  Hubby then proceeded to tell me about his recent experience.

I have blogged previously about the big cancer research fundraiser our school does every year. One component of this event is the Pedals for Hope 40 mile bike ride that the middle school students participate in.  Pedals for Hope 2013 is just around the corner.

Hubby goes into the school a few days a week to help transport the elementary students (via bus) to a nearby sports venue for off-campus P.E. activities.  He drops one group off, comes back to pick up a second group, then drops them off and brings the first group back.  During his back and forth recently, he has seen Mr. C up to something heartwarming.  Mr. C helps coordinate many of our outdoor experiences and activities, including Pedals for Hope.

Recently, Hubby has seen Mr. C out in the school parking lot and on the lane that leads up to our school, working with one of the middle school boys.  He is helping him learn how to ride a bike.  He goes around the parking lot, and up and down the lane, holding onto the bike and giving a push, running along side helping him know how to steer and stay up.  For some reason this middle school boy does not know how to ride a bike.  Maybe his family can't afford a bike, or his parents never taught him, or maybe he just was never able to learn.  But Mr. C is making sure that this young man will not miss out on participating with his peers when they ride their Pedals for Hope bike ride fundraiser.

When hubby related this experience, it literally brought tears to my eyes.  I'm misting up again just typing it up.

And this is why I don't step down.  I'm so proud of a school full of teachers like Mr. H and Mr. C (yep, they're pretty much all this dedicated), and I know it's not really anything I can take credit for, but I still love that I get to rub shoulders with people of this caliber, as we work together (them working harder than me) to make our school good for students.  A place where we not only educate their minds, but hopefully do a little bit to fill their souls as well.