While at the grocery store, Honore Wisniewski, 60, occasionally runs into one of the 1st- or 2nd-grade pupils she knows from Jefferson Elementary School in Hoffman Estates.
“They’ll be with their mothers and when they see me they’ll say, `Oh, hi, Mrs. W. What are you doing here?’ They can’t believe that I go to the grocery store,” Wisniewski said with a laugh.
“What makes it so great to see them is that they’re so happy to see me. That’s just a wonderful feeling.”
There’s a simple reason why those pupils are thrilled to see Wisniewski: During the school year she spends every Tuesday at the school, primarily assisting 1st- and 2nd-graders in the computer lab.
She volunteers through the Community Consolidated School District 15’s Senior Exchange Program, which matches residents of the district who are 55 or older with 19 schools in Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Rolling Meadows. Volunteers tutor pupils one-on-one in reading and math, work in libraries and computer labs, and help teachers in classrooms. The program is in its eighth year; 85 volunteers are participating this school year.
“When I’m helping out, I basically walk around the lab assisting those pupils looking for help,” Wisniewski said.
“For instance, a lot of them will all of a sudden have a blank screen on their computer and they’ll pull at my blouse and say, `Mrs. W., I lost everything!’ And I just do the `undo’ command and their work is back on the screen and they think it’s great.
“Other times I might help them with their spelling or help them get through some other part of a computer program they’re working with.”
She helps pupils in the school’s Accelerated Readers program.
“The children choose books to read that are on their reading level,” she said. “Then they are tested (on the computer) about the stories they have read. . . . And again, I help them get through that test,” helping with the computer commands.
She also fills in with whatever a 1st- or 2nd-grade teacher might need.
“I’ll do a whole bunch of different things,” she said. “I might help out a program assistant, or run things off on the photocopy machine for a teacher, or I might read to the kids.”
Wisniewski, a 20-year Hoffman Estates resident, saw a brochure about the program at the public library.
“As I tell everyone, I always wanted to be a teacher but I never got a degree. This is my way of getting into a school,” she said with a smile.
She has volunteered with the program for four years. Participants earn minimum wage, up to the amount of their local school tax bill. When they’ve reached this total they can quit, but almost no one does, program coordinator Dorothy Roxworthy said. Most continue volunteering until the end of the school year, and about 90 percent return the next school year.
“It equates to what I would probably be paying in taxes for education,” Wisniewski said.
A bigger reward, however, is working with the pupils, she said.
“It’s wonderful–it’s very satisfying being with the kids. When I see the kids really getting something out of my work it makes me feel good.”
Wisniewski especially likes the “wonderfully amusing stories” the pupils tell.
“I bring home all kinds of stories and share them with my friends,” she said. “For example, recently I saw this one little boy from the 1st grade and I told him, `I know your brother from last year.’ And he said, `Do you know his friends too? They were in the playground this afternoon, and they wrecked my thousand-dollar shoes.’
“And I said, `Oh, you have thousand-dollar gym shoes?’ Then, the next week I asked how his thousand-dollar shoes were doing and he said, `You know, I talked to my mom, and I think they’re more like a hundred dollars.’ And I said, `That sounds more like it.’ “
Wisniewski also finds it rewarding to see the pupils progress because of her help.
“Recently, the kids in the Accelerated Readers program had to take a test to see how well they could do and what grade level they’re reading at,” she said. “There are a few who are a little behind in their reading and then they worked hard and finally reached the point where they could go into the lab and get tested.
“Afterward, one little 1st-grade boy asked the teacher if he could now read a book before he went to bed. And the teacher said he could read anytime, and he was so thrilled.”
Her work “keeps her on her toes,” Wisniewski said.
“I don’t know that much about computers but I also feel like I’m learning new things because of the questions the kids ask me,” she said. “And sometimes, the students even show me a few tricks around the computer.”
Wisniewski is one of the hardest-working volunteers at the school, said Cheryl Heater, a 1st-grade teacher whose pupils worked with Wisniewski in the computer lab last school year.
“She’s there every Tuesday like clockwork,” Heater said, “and she gets along so well with the children. She’s just real warm and outgoing and very calming. She has a wonderful rapport and she’s always ready to help a child when their hand goes up. She’s the best and always thinks about the kids.”
“There’s a certain level of good spirit she brings to the school,” Principal Nancy Chalex said of Wisniewski. “She works so well with the children that they look forward to her coming here.
“She’s become part of the school family.”
The school, at 3805 Winston Drive, has about 735 pupils in kindergarten through 6th grade.
Wisniewski originally is from Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. After graduating in 1957 from now-defunct St. Casimir High School, she worked as a secretary in several banks. In 1963 she married Jerry Wisniewski. He was a computer instructor at Ameritech when he retired in 1995. The couple raised three children–Steven, Edward and Christine–and have four grandchildren.
She has been a secretary for a temporary service for the last 15 years, filling in at companies, most of which are in Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates. “I like temporary work because my husband and I like to travel,” she said. Recent trips have been to Switzerland, Austria and Hawaii.
She volunteers at the Holy Family Church food pantry in Inverness. “We collect food twice a year for the pantry and give out leaflets to tell everyone what to bring in,” she said.
Wisniewski is glad to back at Jefferson this year.
“I like to learn,” she said. “As old as I am, I’m glad to be able to learn more. I really think it keeps my mind going.
“And it’s fun to work with kids–they keep you going.”
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For more information on volunteering with the Senior Exchange Program of Community Consolidated School District 15, call 847-963-3122.
