Former educators help out at local nonprofits all year
The local chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association once again met its goal of 10,000 volunteer hours for 2008-09.
Barbara Ament, the communications director for the local chapter, said the main goal of the group is to keep retired teachers up on their retirement benefits and movements in education. But a secondary goal is to encourage volunteer work by the former teachers. The local chapter, known as Area V, Division 26, has an annual goal of conducting 10,000 volunteer hours each year.
Former educators help out at local nonprofits all year
The local chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association once again met its goal of 10,000 volunteer hours for 2008-09.
Barbara Ament, the communications director for the local chapter, said the main goal of the group is to keep retired teachers up on their retirement benefits and movements in education. But a secondary goal is to encourage volunteer work by the former teachers. The local chapter, known as Area V, Division 26, has an annual goal of conducting 10,000 volunteer hours each year.
Ament said though many of the 100 members are actively involved in the community, the hardest part of meeting the goal is sometimes getting the former teachers to track their hours. Ament has created a form for the teachers to log their monthly hours in such areas as education, church groups or others. Statewide last year, members logged more than 2.7 million hours, and that was with just 13 percent of members reporting their hours.
Two members who have helped the local chapter reach its goal year after year are Ken and Charlotte Dilley. The two spent many years teaching in local schools, but their careers started in Arizon. The couple took their first teaching job on an Apache Indian Reservation for seven years.
“It was my first teaching job so I gained a lot of experience,” he said. “In fact, the classes were small so I could meet with each student a lot more than now.”
The couple moved to Hollister in 1969, and he continued teaching business and math classes at Hollister High School (now San Benito High School.) She took time off to raise the couples’ two children, Ernie and Jaque.
She still remembers when she went back to teaching when she joined the staff at Sacred Heart Parish School as a fifth-grade teacher.
“My son was a junior in high school then and he said, ‘Mom, why are you going to work? I don’t have anyone to come home to,'” she recalled.
Ken remembers his days teaching typing, office practices and the occasional Algebra class. He said his favorite class was office practices because he got to develop his own curriculum. The class taught students the skills need for secretary work, such as typing, filing, writing business letters and other office work. He conducted mock interviews to prepare his students for job interviews.
“I had girls get sick they were so nervous,” he said.
One of the keys to teaching he said was remembering that the kids were not at the same level as he was with their knowledge.
“If you start talking [at this level], they won’t understand you,” he said.
Though some of his students may not have appreciated the classes at the time, the husband said he just recently had a student stop him in the street who said his typing class was the most boring class she ever took, but also the most useful.
Charlotte has also had former students acknowledge her influence in their lives as a teacher.
One of the things the couple enjoys about being part of the retired teachers group are the quarterly meetings.
“It’s always nice to get together,” she said. “We find out things. Some of us are still substituting or giving our time, especially in tutoring.”
The Dilleys are active volunteers, especially at their church St. Benedict’s/Sacred Heart. The couple has helped with Holte dinners in the past and works at the Fishes and Loaves Pantry, handing out food to needy families. They have also taught the baptism classes through the church for prospective parents and Godparents, he said.
For the Dilleys it is a way to stay connected with the community. At Fishes and Loaves, especially, Charlotte enjoys meeting the people who come each week for food.
“It’s knowing we are helping,” Charlotte said. “I enjoy meeting these people. There is something – a lot of joy in people who need help.”
He said the families often open up to Charlotte because she speaks Spanish. She said she thinks some of the people just need someone to talk to.
That is actually one of their reasons for volunteering.
“It is getting to see other people,” she said. “I used to do a lot of tutoring in the summer. I don’t have the children so I go to the adults.”
