Elna Flynn Awards 2015: Dedication to Education

The Elna Flynn Outstanding Volunteer Awards are inspired by the life of Elna Flynn (1930-1987). Elna Flynn was the consummate Pacifica volunteer who spent her time in classrooms and served as president of the PTA at Portola School and of the Laguna Salada PTA Council, served on the 17th District PTA for San Mateo County, and was a founder of the Oceana Scholarship and Activities Foundation.

The Elna Flynn Awards dinner will take place on Friday, May 8, 2015. It is typically a sold out event. Please contact the PTO board of your child’s school if you are interested in attending.

This award celebrates those individuals who volunteer countless hours of time in the name of education.

The peer recommendations provided by school representatives follow:

Cabrillo Elementary School is proud to honor Carol Falzon as our Elna Flynn recipient for 2015.

“I have enjoyed volunteering over the years--mostly because I know the teachers and staff appreciate it. I am very humbled by this award.”

This year, Ingrid B. Lacy is honored to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of two amazing volunteers, Heather Campagna and Karena Zamagni.

Both of these ladies share a rare honor alongside Charlene Hilo, Ingrid B. Lacy’s Secretary, of receiving the Elna Flynn Outstanding Volunteer Award twice.

Heather has been an integral part of Ingrid B. Lacy for seven years. You name a task and Heather’s done it with a smile. She has served on the PTO Executive Board as Treasurer for over five years. She has chaired major events like Greek Fest and 8th grade activities and graduation. Heather has volunteered in many different positions like the library, book fairs, Chocolate Fest, See’s Candy sales, Box Tops, e-waste recycling, Penny Wars, field trip chaperone and even washing the loaned out P.E. clothes, just to name a few. In addition to volunteering, she is also part of the wonderful Ingrid B. Lacy staff.

Karena has been an essential part of Ingrid B. Lacy for the last two years. She has served on our PTO Board in different positions, on our school site council, and on the interview panel for our new principal. Karena has volunteered for major events like Chocolate Fest, Greek Fest, Challenge Day, and 8th grade activities. She has helped with everything from book fairs, the Academic Honors Breakfast, cookie dough fundraisers and she has also sold popsicles every Wednesday and Friday for the past two years without fail.

Wherever help is needed, that is where you will find these wonderful ladies. It is with a tremendous amount of respect and heartfelt gratitude that Ingrid B. Lacy recognizes Heather Campagna and Karena Zamagni as our 2015 Elna Flynn co-recipients. Thank you both for being so committed to our school community and for all your hard work and dedication to our Ingrid B. Lacy Bulldog Family.

Ocean Shore School is excited to select Rose Davis as an Elna Flynn recipient for the 2014-2015 school year. Rose is the mother of a graduating 8th grader and a parent to two children who have attended OSS. Rose has been a dedicated parent volunteer for over ten years. She has participated in countless areas of the school, from fundraising to fieldtrips and paperwork to theme days, and she continues to serve in many important ways.

Rose is a responsible and organized helper. Rose always comes prepared, and not just prepared to help! She thinks ahead and takes care of the details so that activities run smoothly. Rose wants each activity to be valuable and meaningful for each student and takes the time to make that happen. She is always patient with the students. As Rose worked her way through countless Ocean Shore parent opportunities, she fell into one of the most thankless jobs at this school as a parent volunteer; she became the “Hours Recorder”.

If you know Ocean Shore, you know that most of our parent population spends countless volunteer hours at our school. Rose willingly accepted keeping track of the hours and monitoring all hours associated with a school that hosts 450 students, over 300 families, and over 200 fieldtrips and theme days a year. All of the activities at OSS take help and we gladly invite our parents and guardians, nannies and grandparents to volunteer! Rose has been thorough, thoughtful, and consistent for over five years in this position that is thankless and has no glory, but is exceedingly important to our school. Rose has done her work with such grace and we thank her for her years of service.

Ocean Shore is also proud to announce Ia Vang as one of our Elna Flynn recipients. Ia has been part of Ocean Shore for over 13 years and is a wonderful, smiling, and friendly part of everyone’s day at OSS. Ia was born in Laos, (the one daughter of eight children) and spent childhood years in Thailand. She then moved to the California valley where she was a Hmong translator for native farm workers. Ia has lived in Pacifica now for many years and has three children who have attended Ocean Shore School. Her dedication to education runs deep in her family and we have been so lucky to benefit from who she is and her willingness to work with our students daily.

Ia is one of those rare individuals who is talented enough to do anything we ask. She has been a classroom aide, been the beach coordinator for Oceans’ Week, chaperoned countless fieldtrips, run special projects, and worked in countless capacities at school. She is dependable, organized and fast!!! All coveted skills for working in a school as a helper! Ia is a natural teacher and always willing to step in to help any child who needs it. She spends the time to get to know the children and truly enjoys helping children succeed in school. Also, over all these years, she has shared precious cultural traditions with the children at Ocean Shore School. Ia is such a special person and with her son graduating, we don’t know what we will do without her daily smile and dedicated help!

Ruth Mattes has been volunteering more than 20 hours a week at Ortega School for the last seven years—it’s no wonder she is our Elna Flynn recipient. After retiring from the US Postal Service, she decided to volunteer at our local schools and was placed at Ortega. She began working with Ms. Fugitt’s Art Class, helping the children with their projects and also provided help prepping materials for Ms. Rios’s Kindergarten class. “ She worked carefully and kindly to help the children through the first steps of school life.” Ms. Fugitt.

Eventually, Ms. Ruth began working daily in all four Kindergarten classes with prep work. This included, but was not limited to, laminating, cutting, tracing, gluing, photo copying, and making students’ memory books. “She helped our class with make-up work and put together the precious end-of-the-year memory books. Her working behind the scenes enabled me to spend more class time with my students,” relates Mrs.Louthan.

Ms. Ruth spent many years volunteering her services faithfully in not only the Kindergarten classes, but also always made herself available to the upper grade classes as well. Ruth is an amazing volunteer and is willing to help wherever she is needed. We have truly been blessed to have her as such an important part of the Ortega family. “I always like helping others and working with such cute little kids,” said Ms. Ruth.

This year Sunset Ridge has the pleasure of awarding their Elna Flynn Volunteer Service Award to two deserving recipients --Molly Bolich and Virginia Corporan-Travieso.

Molly Bolich started helping out on the PTO when her daughter started kindergarten 4 years ago. She now has a 3rd grader and a kindergartener at our school and a daughter who will begin Sunset Ridge in 3 years. Needless to say, Molly is an extremely dedicated parent and has been a wonderful addition our school. If you don’t see Molly at school, you can bet she has either just left the school or is on her way back and is always available lend a hand or two to a project or event that is in the works. She’s volunteered at our Boo Fests, the Fog Fests, and has taught lessons at our Annual Ability Awareness Day to name just a few events she has supported.

As our PTO President, Molly has been a great leader and organizer of many community events. She has organized BBQs and fundraisers, hung fliers, cooked, cleaned, presented school news at events, and attended countless meetings that not only supported Sunset Ridge, but also support the entire Pacifica community. She has taught all of us the importance of not giving up and working together.

Virginia Corporan-Travieso is our other outstanding volunteer of 2015. She is our PTO Financial Auditor and has involved in the PTO and the community from the moment her eldest son started at Sunset Ridge. Both her sons are in school. Her eldest is in 4th and her youngest is in 1st grade. Virginia is dedicated to children and has a sense of humor that made her a perfect fit to our Sunset Ridge family. She has volunteered at numerous events, cooking and cleaning and making all of us laugh and enjoy the work that we do. Virginia is that person that comes at the beginning of an event and stays to the very end to make sure everything is back and in good shape. One of the most amazing things about Virginia is that she never complains. She rolls up her sleeves and gets things done with a smile on her face.

Virginia is a Room Parent and helps with classroom activities that include fieldtrips, classroom celebrations, wrapping books for our annual book exchange, which involves wrapping books for each child at our school. Virginia is also an amazing cook and works at our school cooking lunch for all our children.

Molly and Virginia are simply amazing people. Not only are these ladies dedicated to supporting our children and our community, but they have shared their families with us and built friendships that will last a lifetime. They have really brought the meaning of community to our school. Virginia and Molly it is with pleasure that the Sunset Ridge community honors you with the Elna Flynn Award for outstanding volunteers of 2015.

Vallemar School is proud to announce Lynn Anderson and Melanie Rivera as our two 2015 Elna Flynn recipients. Lynn has been a dedicated Vallemar parent for nine years. She has two boys at Vallemar, Jacob in eighth grade and Sam in fifth grade. Lynn is committed to the students and staff at Vallemar. She has helped out in her son’s classrooms with art projects, making copies, decorating bulletin boards, and driving on many field trips. Lynn has volunteered her time during PE, psychomotor, Junior Olympics, library, and art class activities. She has been the lead room parent to help organize special parties and teacher appreciation gifts as well. Lynn has also taken time to help outside the classroom with our school. She is a member of the district’s special education committee and has a lead role on our 8th grade parent committee fundraising and preparing for the graduation activities. Lynn has always been an eager participant in our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). She attends PTO meetings regularly and has been a PTO board member and parent grade level representative for many years. She has been a consistent volunteer with many of our fundraisers. From the spaghetti dinner to the auction, Lynn is always there to lend a helping hand.

Melanie has been a Pacifica resident for almost 20 years and we have been lucky enough to have her as a Vallemar parent for over 11 years. She has two girls, Sophia in seventh grade and Bella, a Vallemar graduate, who is now in tenth grade at Mercy High School in Burlingame. Despite working full-time, she has found ways to contribute to our school. Melanie prefers to volunteer behind the scenes, but her efforts do not go unnoticed. She has been an active member of our PTO, serving several years on the board as the treasurer. Melanie has also been the parent grade level representative for a few years. She has been a lead parent in fundraising and organizing for her daughter Bella’s graduation and I’m sure she will do the same for Sophia next year. Regardless of what grade her children are in, she is always willing to help out where needed. From our biggest fundraisers to our smallest, Melanie is a go-to parent with a can-do attitude.

Lynn Anderson and Melanie Rivera are dedicated to our school, students, staff, and community. They have both supported all of us in so many positive ways. We are very fortunate to have them and their children as part of our school family.

Congratulations to all recipients of this year’s Elna Flynn Award!