Apple Valley Person of the Year 'Always Willing to Give'

Sue Spaniol gives the school community something that most people guard protectively: her time.

For that and more, Spaniol is Apple Valley Patch’s Person of the Year for 2011.

“She’s just always willing to give,” said Jodi Hanson, an assistant principal at Eastview who works closely with Spaniol.

Improving Eastview, From the Inside Out

Spaniol spends 20 hours each week volunteering in classrooms at Eastview. She provides teacher support for the ACE program, a class that offers academic assistance and motivation for students performing in the school’s bottom 10 percent.

Her decision to take the unpaid part-time position came in November 2010, when a that would have brought $15 million to District 196 schools was voted down.

She couldn’t change the outcome of the election, but she felt she had to change something, she said.

So, for the past year, Spaniol has worked 7:30 to 11:15 a.m. every school day, assisting ACE students one-on-one and in small groups. Prior to that, she worked with students in the English Language Learning program.

“It’s what I just love to do,” said Spaniol. “I learn something new every day with them.”

But Spaniol’s volunteer spirit doesn’t stop when she leaves Eastview at lunchtime. Each night, she hits the books, completing ahead of time the homework assignments given to the students, so she’s prepared to answer any questions they might have the next day.

Spaniol has been known to spontaneously donate school supplies for the ACE class, medicine for the nurse’s office and, on one occasion, a birthday cake for an English Language Learning student. She also maintained the gardens at for several years, even though her children were no longer students there. 

“I just don’t know anybody who volunteers more or has more of a heart,” said Molly Wellick, who works with Spaniol on the Eastview Community Foundation and nominated her for Apple Valley Patch’s Person of the Year. “She fills every gap there is to fill.”

A Family Legacy

Spaniol’s giving nature is unsurprising, considering her family history.

Her grandparents, Arthur and Stella Sanford, were instrumental in opening the Sanford Center in Souix City, IA, which was established in 1951 to promote interracial understanding and community. Spaniol’s mother was involved with health and wellness causes, specifically the Variety Club and the Arthritis Foundation.

However, the future drives Spaniol just as much as the past. She hopes to inspire her three children, ages 28, 21 and 17, just as she was inspired to give back to the community by her mother and grandparents.

For the past six years, Spaniol has followed in her family’s philanthropic steps.

Building a Brighter Future

Spaniol worked as a nurse before deciding to stay at home in 2005.

But that year, she gave a nursing scholarship to the Eastview Community Foundation on behalf of her family. Soon after that, she joined the foundation board.

Spaniol also has served as the foundation’s grants chairperson for three years. This entails soliciting and organizing grant proposals from teachers and principals, and facilitating the grants committee that selects the recipients. 

The foundation grants go to classroom projects and other educational areas, such as early education, underprivileged education and the English Language Learning program. Also included in the foundation’s work are Random Acts of Kindness grants, which help financially disadvantaged students at the administration’s discretion.

“I love seeing the fruition of a grant,” Spaniol said. “Education is taking place because of our hard work.”

Spaniol also co-chairs the foundation's annual fall fundraiser, , a . She solicits, collects and categorizes the art, and selects the event’s venue and food.

Organizing Art Madness is a serious commitment. Planning begins in the summer and continues through early November.

“She never takes credit for it,” said Hanson. “She’s just generous in so many ways.”