News Releases
April Volunteer of the Month: Mary Beth Knoeppel, President, Virginia Lake PTA
“I like to be busy,” says Mary Beth Knoeppel. Some might consider that a strange statement, coming from the mother of four elementary students and president of the Virginia Lake PTA, but Mary Beth is a person who, by her own description, is “always taking things on.”
Mary Beth, a former District 15 teacher and building assistant, first got involved in the volunteer side of school activities at Virginia Lake seven years ago. She did art awareness, then moved on to kindergym when her daughter started kindergarten. She’s held a variety of PTA positions: kindergym chairperson, cultural arts co-chair, room rep chair, yearbook co-chair, and has been a room represent-ative for four years. She’s been on the PTA executive board for several years and current serves as PTA president. In addition, Mary Beth has volunteered her time at many PTA-sponsored school events including the school picnic, bilingual and multicultural nights, fun fairs, book fairs, Market Day, and holiday stores.
“I like being president,” she says. “I’m learning a lot. I like meeting with the other presidents and organizing things. Virginia Lake is a great school to work for. The teachers work so incredibly hard. I enjoy working with other parents and doing things for the kids.”
“Mary Beth has an incredible attitude and does all of the above with such enthusiasm,” said her nominator. “She is a shining example of what it means to be a volunteer.”
Mary Beth attended Virginia Lake for part of sixth grade after her family moved to Palatine, then attended Walter R. Sundling Junior High and Palatine High Schools. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and her master’s in administration from Northern Illinois University. She taught fourth and fifth grades at Marion Jordan School for five years, then became building assistant at the school before returning to the classroom as a fifth-grade teacher. With a growing family, she put her teaching career on hold a few years ago.
She and her husband Mark are the parents of four Virginia Lake students: Cara, sixth grade; Mark, fifth grade; Kevin, second grade, and Mary Kate, a kindergartener.
Mary Beth’s leisure activities include spending time with family and friends, cycling and body pump classes at the YMCA, and reading.
|
