Making a Difference: Volunteer work a boon for mom, students

Volunteering in her children’s classrooms and school lunchrooms has taken hold of Terri Hudecek and become a true avocation for this mother of three.

“I enjoy it,” says Hudecek, who lives in Elephant Head with her husband, Chris, and their three children, 14-year-old Caitlin, 11-year-old Cheyenne and 8-year-old Jake.

For the past three years, Hudecek has given of her time in her children’s classrooms at Sopori School. Last year, she spent half a day a week in Anna Chamberlain’s second-grade class reading one-on-one with several students who needed extra help.

Also, Hudecek helped start a bilingual book program last year called READ — Readers Enjoying Adventure and Discovery. Thanks to a grant from PRO Neighborhoods, the school was able to purchase about 300 books in English and Spanish, an asset for a number of Sopori families who primarily speak Spanish, Hudecek said.

With a focus on grades K-3, students were able to check out books one morning a week for a half-hour before classes started. Hudecek adds that more adult volunteers are welcome in the READ program for the 2009-10 school year.

Last year, Hudecek also served as president of the Sopori Parent Teacher Organization, which held fundraisers for the school, including the popular spring carnival.

In addition, she served as a lunchroom monitor one day every other week at Sahuarita Middle School, helped with the SMS book fair, and volunteered in Mary Beth Bosse’s and Bill Wildish’s classrooms and on a field trip to the University of Arizona.

“It was whole new world at SMS, coming from Sopori,” a smaller school with “a community environment,” Hudecek notes.

She and her family are members of Calvary Chapel in Sahuarita, and Hudecek helps in small ways there, such as donating to a bake sale to raise funds for the women’s retreat.

Her family — which has three horses, two rabbits, a turtle, hermit crabs, cats and pet dogs — also is active in the Sahuarita Community 4-H Club.

“My kids keep us busy,” she notes, adding that her family also has been active in AYSO, the American Youth Soccer Organization.

Hudecek lived in Tucson and worked for Carondelet Health Network before moving to Elephant Head in 1992, and having children.

“I’m been lucky to be able to stay at home” since her oldest started school, she says.

And she makes it a priority to be involved in her kids schools “so I know what’s going on,” she says.

She has found that the teachers are thankful for her volunteer efforts, and she enjoys getting to know some of the middle school kids while she’s there.

It’s at Sopori, with the younger students, that the results of her work are most apparent. The youngsters “are so happy to see you come” and work with them, she notes.

As a reading mentor last year, “there were three kids I worked with, and one little guy was really struggling. Now he’s doing so well, he doesn’t need to be in the special reading program” next year, she said.

Sopori students also like the bilingual library and ask for more books by their favorite authors.

“The kids like it, and I enjoy it,” Hudecek says.

Making a Difference features folks who help make Sahuarita a great place to live. To recommend someone for this weekly series, call Karen Walenga at 547-9739, e-mail to kwalenga@gvnews.com or FAX to 625-1603.