By Travis MacLeod
Twice a week, 72-year-old Lee Kinnear walks two minutes from her MacLaren Street apartment to meet some young friends.
As soon as she walks through the door of Elgin Street public school, the eyes of her little friends light up.
They know her as “Grandma Lee.”
Kinnear retired from her job as a legal clerk six years ago. Nine years ago she read an article in a local paper on volunteering in schools and decided to get involved herself.
Now she works individually with Grade 1 students every Tuesday, helping them with their classroom reading assignments. Wednesdays she sits in her rocking chair in the library and reads stories to the kindergarten children.
“Sometimes I read some stories to her and she sometimes holds my hand,” says six-year-old Emily Bennett. “She helps me write numbers out.”
Kinnear is someone teacher Patricia Day says is invaluable to children who need extra help.
“As we have more and more cutbacks and less and less support, these vulnerable children are the ones that are impacted the most,” says Day. “A lot of the children she works with really need that extra attention.”
It’s because of seniors like Kinnear who help out at the school that parents and teachers are hoping more seniors will come forward and lend a helping hand.
She and others at the school are looking for volunteers who have a basic knowledge of computers and will be able to help supervise a new computer lab and teach children computer basics.
Now, students are only able to use the lab in the library when a teacher or the part-time librarian is present. If there was someone there to supervise the room during times it isn’t normally staffed, the children would be able to use the lab much more often.
Principal Terry Davies says the school isn’t just looking for seniors or people with computer experience, but anyone who has some extra time on their hands. She points to a group of students from Lisgar Collegiate who volunteer to help out the public school children with their reading assignments.
Emily’s mom, Wendy Bennett, says: “Grandma Lee is extraordinarily good with the kids, so they (the children) have a lot of fun. There must be someone else sitting at home with time, energy and wisdom to spare.”
Kinnear says she thinks seniors like her can give children something she feels is missing in too many of their lives — a grandparent.
“A lot of the children, because of the mobility of our society today, might not have grandparents here in Ottawa. So I think it’s nice for them to be associated with an older person,” Kinnear says. “It teaches them that just because you’re an older person doesn’t mean you can’t participate in things.”
Anyone who wants to volunteer at the school must go through a screening process before they can work in the school. Volunteers who are accepted also participate in a training program.
Kinnear says she hopes when seniors realize the need is there for them in the school system, they’ll come to help.
“I really appreciate it when they say ‘hi Grandma Lee’ and give me a big hug. It’s the little things like that that make it all worthwhile.”