The View 38002 December 2013 | Page 8

Page 8 38002.com theview theview December 2013 lakeland elementary school Lakeland Volunteers “Go the Extra Mile” Lakeland Elementary PTA’s theme for this year is “Going the Extra Mile” Each month, recognition would be given to someone who has truly gone the extra mile in helping our school, by giving of themselves in special ways. Our August “Going the Extra Mile” recipient is Robin Forrester, who is serving her first term as VP of Membership for our PTA. Robin has spent countless hours working on ensuring our membership reached an all time high of over 1000 members. This is a huge accomplishment for LES as we have always been leaders in Shelby County for the amount of PTA members at our school. In addition to her work on the PTA, Robin can be found volunteering in her second grader, Jack's classroom or at work for Nationwide Insurance. Our GEM recipient for the month of September is Sandy Zhaung. Sandy volunteers almost every morning for breakfast and during the lunch periods. She recognized the need for extra hands in the beginning of the school year when she was having lunch with her children: fourth grader Joyce Ma, second grader James Ma, and Kindergartner John Ma. Our October “Going the Extra Mile” award goes to Ken Blevins Ken is the father of Nathan and Noah Blevins, both 5th graders. He is a retired Naval Commander who began his work with us several years ago, and his volunteering spirit has grown so large that he is present in the school building almost every day! We have come to think of him as “one of our own”! Ken helped to kick off the “Go Green” initiative by collecting the recyclables once a week for us. This effort has grown into him taking the responsibility for all the collection and the containers being at the curb for weekly pickup. He is the CoChair of the Watch Dog Dads program: coordinating Volunteer Spot, handling the calendar, and giving special, individualized training for dads who could not be present for the group training. Ken works incredibly hard and can always be found with a “willingness to do whatever will help” attitude. He sharpens pencils, cuts out laminating, delivers copies, boxes, supplies, mail, lunchboxes, forgotten homework, reads to kids, reviews sight words and math facts with kids, and works in the cafeteria daily! He is an integral part of the organization of the logistics for the annual Veterans’ Program. He has also greatly assisted our new part-time plant manager. Ken also collects car rider numbers from the waiting cars each day for dismissal. We are thankful to have a man who is so dedicated to our school and are pleased to be able to recognize him with this award. LES Thanks Its Watch DOGS Please help Lakeland Elementary School applaud and thank the following Watch DOGS who have given their time to volunteer during the first quarter of school! Ben Schauerhamer, Bill Platten, Brian Jones, Bruce Wallace, Cecil Tompkins, Don Barber, Geoff Hicks, James O’Leary, Ken Blevins, Larry Denmon, Paul Brown, Paul Vandiver, Sumner Buck, Tim Roberts, Tim Rummel, Tom Nichols, and Vincent Macaraeg. It’s not too late to become a volunteer Watch DOGS dad! Contact Michele Dial – [email protected] or Ken Blevins – [email protected] Stories and Photos this page provided by Lakeland Elementary School. Got a great story to share? Send story suggestions, press releases, announcements, media coverage requests, and photos to The View 38002 (editor@theview38002. com) by the 15th of the month prior to publication.