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March Volunteer of the Month: Joy Kalfas, Gray M. Sanborn School PTA
Although she’s only been a member of the Gray M. Sanborn PTA for two years, Joy Kalfas says she knew she’d want to be involved in her children’s school. Joy downplays her efforts, saying, “There are so many other people who’ve done so much more for much longer,” but the PTA is very appreciative of her organizational skills.
“On her own initiative, Joy took a long-standing problem and created a solution,” said her nominator. “PTA procedure books were not being kept and needed information was not being included. Every year, the PTA committees had to ‘reinvent the wheel’ with new members asking the same questions. Joy assembled the binders, included all the appropriate information, then gave one to every member. The response was overwhelming and appreciated.”
“My teacher friends at Winston Campus are going to laugh,” says Joy, herself a former Winston Campus teacher. They always called me ‘the Binder Queen.’ It really wasn’t a tough project—making the tabs for the binders on the computer was the hardest part!”
This year, Joy is co-chairing the PTA’s Santa’s Secret Shop and Teacher Appreciation Week. She’s a room mom, does art awareness, and works with reading groups in her son’s classroom every Thursday. “My husband and I both sign up for just about anything that’s going on at school,” she comments. Her husband Tom has shared her involvement, participating in field trips, the fun fair, sock hop, and food fests. “This school is such a community, family school,” Joy says. “The door is always open to those who want to volunteer—so we do.”
Joy grew up in Chicago and earned her bachelor’s degree in education from DePaul University. Later she obtained her master’s in curriculum and education from Concordia University. She first taught for two years in the southern suburbs, then came to District 15 and Winston Campus as a fifth-grade gifted teacher. She taught there for eight years. Joy and Tom are the parents of Christian, a Sanborn second grader, and Alexandra, 4. She is active in her church as a CCD teacher at St. Theresa’s, and she enjoys reading, but for the most part, she says, her life is centered on her family, leaving little time for other activities.
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