DERRY — For 38 years, Christine Haswell has been a fixture at South Range Elementary School. She is the school's volunteer coordinator and recently won the Outstanding Volunteer Coordinator of the Year award from the state Partners in Education. She was nominated for the award by principal Matt Olsen.
— Eric Parry
Why did you start volunteering at the school in 1971?
I started when my oldest daughter was in second grade at the school. We did some baking in her classroom. Now she's 46 years old.
What do you and the other volunteers do at the school?
We have about 40 regular volunteers and over 100 who help throughout the year. We help the teachers by making copies, binding books for class and cutting out shapes for bulletin boards.
Why have you stayed here that whole time?
By the time my third child finished at the school, I had already been working with teachers in math and reading groups. I stayed here because I had connections with those teachers and it was always fun to be here. Now a lot of those teachers are gone and have retired. We even have a couple teachers who went to school here.
So what keeps you here after all these years?
I don't like staying home very much. The teachers are extremely appreciative, and there's just tons of stuff volunteers can do. Once they ask you to do something and you do it, they learn to trust you.
I also really enjoy working with the children. I have a reading group or some group of children I work with every day. It's a good thing to have a smaller group and allow the kids to be able to have more opportunities to read.
It's also a good example to set. It's been really fun to see your children grow up to be volunteers as well. It doesn't have to be in a school like me, but they volunteer in other ways.
So you never wanted to be a teacher even though you spent so much time in a school?
I made up my mind I wanted to be a nurse when I was 5 years old. I was a nurse for 36 years but I retired a few years ago and come to school every day now.
I've thought that being a teacher would have been nice also, but I never wanted to go back to school for that. I get a taste of it every day anyway.SClBÔÇæÔÇæÔÇæ
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