News Releases
January Volunteer of the Month: Debbie McGuire, Co-Chair, Environmental Committee, Frank C. Whiteley School PTA
Debbie McGuire is very enthusiastic about preserving the environment, and as co-chair of the Environmental Education Committee for the Frank C. Whiteley PTA for the past five years, she has inspired dozens of students, teachers, and even other parents to do their part for the environment.
As a member of the Environmental Commission of the Village of Hoffman Estates, Debbie actively pursued waste alternatives that would continue no-cost recycling and provide residents with incentives to recycle. The year her daughter started kindergarten at Whiteley, she noticed an ad in the school’s PTA newsletter for an environmental education chair. Debbie quickly decided she could have more impact by devoting her energy and enthusiasm to educating students about the environment.
“I’ve always been concerned about the environment,” Debbie said. “People talk about starting in your own backyard—and I did!”
Debbie chaired the committee alone for a year, then was joined by Suzanne Kirkwood (featured in last month’s Check This Out). They started by sponsoring waste-free lunches once a month. During a vacation to Brazil, Debbie saw an exhibit of religious figures created from recycled materials—which gave her the idea for an annual holiday art contest using recycled materials. Other additions to the program have included an annual poster contest, an annual neighborhood clean-up in cooperation with the Village of Hoffman Estates, bulletin board exhibits featuring environmental themes, and last year, the debut of an Environmental Club for fourth through sixth graders sponsored by three fourth-grade teachers.
“Debbie has spent many hours designing and creating butterfly gardens, waste-free lunches, Clean-up Day, Project Landfill and Recycling, and helped produce a waste-free lunch video for Whiteley School,” said her nominators. “They (Debbie and Suzanne) have made a difference in all of our lives at Whiteley.”
Debbie says the students are more receptive to the idea of recycling now than they were when she first started the program. “When I started making commercials for the morning announcements, nobody would volunteer to appear, so I did them myself. Now everybody wants to be in a commercial!”
Debbie and her husband Mark are the parents of Shannon, a fourth grader at Whiteley, and Connor, a third grader. They have lived in Hoffman Estates for 11 years. Debbie holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Western Illinois University and worked in store security for Neiman Marcus before obtaining her paralegal certificate and working for a law firm. Debbie also volunteers in the Whiteley Resource Center. In her free time, Debbie enjoys reading mystery novels (especially Stephen King), likes to go bike riding with her children, and enjoys gardening.
|
