News Releases
May Volunteer of the Month:
 Janet Bethke, Walter R. Sundling Band Volunteer
“I guess you have to be organized,” Janet Bethke says. That’s a major understatement, considering her most recent accomplishment—serving as parent chair when Walter R. Sundling Junior High successfully hosted the Illinois Grade School Music Association Solo and Ensemble Contest. The February 26 event had more than 2,000 participants.
“Janet spent countless hours coordinating all aspects of the contest, including hosting duties, enlisting volunteers, organizing/selling refreshments, parking, and classroom set-up and tear-down,” her nominator pointed out. Janet gives full credit to other Sundling band program parents, including her volunteer co-chair and others she recruited to fill 180 four-hour volunteer slots on the day of the contest, as well as to the music department at the school. “It wouldn’t have happened without their efforts,” she says modestly.
She also credits her family—husband, Karl, a manufacturing engineer; Adam, an eighth grader at Sundling; and Erik, a sixth grader at Gray M. Sanborn. “They’re very helpful and accommodating,” she says. The entire family pitched in to make “IGSMA Volunteer” buttons for the contest, an activity that she describes as a “lot of work” but “a lot of fun.” Chairing the IGSMA was just a continuation of Janet’s ongoing volunteer involvement in band events over the past two years. “It’s neat to be involved in your children’s lives and activities,” she says.
Janet and Karl are both natives of Mukwonago, a small town in southeastern Wisconsin. She earned a degree in business from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, then married Karl and lived in California and later Oregon before moving to Palatine ten years ago. She worked for an accounting firm, then as a production planner for Intel before Adam was born, then became an at-home mother. Six years ago, she joined District 15 as a program assistant at Virginia Lake School, where she works with students in fourth grade, the LD/BD program, and with KIP, the kindergarten reading intervention program. “It’s the perfect ‘mom job,’” she chuckles.
Janet and Karl both sing in their church choir and are involved with their church. She also has “a very full schedule” with Adam and Erik’s activities, seeing that they get to music lessons, Adam to track practice and events, and to confirmation classes.
Janet will be recognized at the May 11, 2005, Board of Education meeting, to be held at Walter R. Sundling Junior High School, at 7 p.m.
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