“I didn’t realize I had that much impact on the kids,” said Upper Grand District School Board Everyday Hero award winner Al Brown.
“It made me feel good.”
Brown, 89, volunteers at Rockwood Centennial Public School and Ottawa Crescent Public School in Guelph.
At Rockwood Centennial he helps a Grade 3 class.
“I sit with the students one at a time and edit their journals with them,” Brown said. “I have them read to me and I point out mistakes and spelling correctly.”
Teacher Deborah McDougall calls Brown her “classroom editor.”
“The students enjoy their time with Mr. Brown and are disappointed if time restricts (their visit with him) … or if he is not able to come in due to illness,” McDougall said in her nomination letter.
At Ottawa Crescent, Brown helps out with a kindergarten class.
“Most of the time it’s working with a kid one-on-one, where they are learning their letters, so I do things like they draw their letters on a piece of paper,” he said.
“Or they try and find the specific letter in a whole page of letters.”
Brown has volunteered for eight years at Ottawa Crescent and five years at Rockwood Centennial.
McDougall said Brown, along with his wife Vivian, also attend school events as part of the audience.
“Their attendance at these assemblies lightens the hearts of students in my class,” McDougall said.
“They know that an adult is there to watch them perform, even when their family adults are working and unable to attend.”
Brown has also volunteered on the River Run Centre building committee, with the board of trustees at the McDonald Stewart Art Centre and on the board of the St. Joseph’s Hospital building committee and board of trustees.
He was also on the Red Cross board and the Habitat for Humanity Board, after volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build.
When those projects came to an end, Brown said he was looking for something new.
“Miss McDougall was a friend of mine,” Brown said. “I asked if they could use any volunteers at the school and she said ‘you can come and volunteer with my class.’ So that was it.”
He visits the schools once a week for a few hours in the morning.
“I get a lot of hugs,” Brown said. “Most of my family were teachers. It seemed the natural thing to do.
“I certainly get a lot of appreciation from the teachers – more than I deserve actually.”
McDougall concludes her nomination letter by saying the Brown is an Everyday Hero because “he makes our school a better place to learn.”
