Volunteer takes a bow -- quickly

Michael Miller

Gail Standt is a modest woman. Even when her school honors her for

her work, she wants the work -- not herself -- in the spotlight.

Last Thursday, Newport Heights Elementary School awarded a gift

basket to Standt, a parent volunteer who has started 20 after-school

programs and a physical education unit in the past two years. The

basket contained coffee grounds, rock candy, a book on parenting and

gift certificates from Garduno’s, The Pizza Bakery and half a dozen

other restaurants around town.

So was Standt, who works five days a week at the school, ready to

take a break and celebrate? Not just yet.

“We have softball practice today,” she explained after getting the

basket, “so we’ll probably have leftovers when we get home.”

That, according to her colleagues, is Standt in a nutshell. She’ll

give her time endlessly to make sure the students at Newport Heights

-- her son and daughter among them -- get the right amount of

exercise, vitamins and produce. Last year, she helped start the After

School Enrichment program at Newport Heights, which features classes

in Spanish, chess, dance and more. But give her praise, and she’ll

quickly siphon it off.

“One character trait of Gail is to be humble,” said Newport

Heights principal Kurt Suhr. “She never wants to take too much credit

for the work she’s done.”

At least one member of the Newport Heights community, though, was

happy to give Standt credit. Dawn Kerrigan, the mother of a

kindergartner at the school, set out last month to gather donations

from the community to reward Standt for her services. With a letter

describing the after-school and Coordinated Approach To Child Health

(CATCH) physical education programs, Kerrigan visited businesses in

the Newport-Mesa area and accumulated a basket’s worth of goods.

In all, Kerrigan received donations from seven different outlets:

Celestino’s Meats, Plums Cafe, Garduno’s, The Pizza Bakery, Mi Casa

Mexican restaurant, Where’s the Party and the First Page. While

Standt receives funding for the CATCH program from the district

nutrition services program, Kerrigan wanted to give her an extra

token of gratitude.

“It’s just a way of honoring her for everything she’s done,” said

Kerrigan, whose brother, Marc Africano, teaches sixth grade at

Newport Heights. “Last year, when she put together the PE program,

she worked there every day.”

Standt and others were inspired to start a new physical education

unit at the school after Newport Heights extended the school day for

first through third grades this year. Starting last fall, younger

students got out of school at 2:45 p.m., only five minutes before the

upper classmen.

“Everyone knew there was going to be a longer day for primary

students, and with that came an even greater need for physical

education,” Suhr explained.

To implement CATCH at Newport Heights, Standt contacted Chris

Corliss, the health and physical education program coordinator for

the Orange County Dept. of Education. Working with Corliss,

Newport-Mesa superintendent Robert Barbot and nutrition services

director Dick Greene, Standt organized CATCH as a pilot program for

her school.

The CATCH program, developed in the early 1990s as a nationwide

research project and offered statewide in Texas, features four

components -- physical activity, classroom education, community

involvement and nutrition. At present, one teacher at each grade

level offers the program at Newport Heights, with a number of parents

also volunteering.

“One person doesn’t do anything,” Standt said. “It takes a big

group of people to get something going.”

Among the physical activities offered by CATCH are soccer, tag,

running and jump-roping -- activities, Greene said, designed to keep

all participants moving at once.

In addition to sports, Newport Heights has also implemented a

“produce bar” in the cafeteria this year, offering fresh fruits and

vegetables to students on a daily basis.

“I think one thing that’s happened in California is that physical

education standards were finally adopted by the state board last

January,” Corliss said. “We’ve never had PE standards in California,

so what’s happening now is that the county office is working with the

state office to start the whole process of educating teachers and

administrators about PE instruction.”

Although the school is treating CATCH as a pilot program, Suhr

said that initial feedback on the activities has been positive and

that more classrooms may adopt the program next year.

“I can’t overemphasize how much we appreciate Gail Standt at

Newport Heights Elementary,” he said.