IRVINE : Kids Adopt the Views of Volunteer

Barbara Kelly, Irvine’s 1993 Parent Volunteer of the Year, isn’t satisfied with holding bake sales and attending PTA meetings.

Kelly, her admirers say, is a school volunteer for the 1990s.

She campaigned hard for a state initiative that would benefit schools. She has also tried to instill in youngsters the importance of volunteer work and community service by helping them “adopt” a Marine Corps squadron during the Persian Gulf War and collect food for charity.

In the process, Kelly has proved to Bonita Canyon Elementary School students that people working together can make a difference in the community, school officials said.

“The value of demonstrating civic responsibility is certainly a core responsibility that we all have,” said Lynn Bogart, Bonita Canyon’s principal and the person who nominated Kelly for the award. “We try to do it in the curriculum. What (Kelly’s) projects helped do is go to the demonstration level.”

Kelly, 44, downplayed her role in bolstering community-mindedness at the school, saying that all parents and teachers deserve praise for their efforts to improve the campus.

“So many parents are involved that when we present (community service) plans for kids, they are hyped about it,” she said. “They see their parents are involved in the community. I think it’s a wonderful partnership between the school, the home and the community.”

Kelly was selected Parent Volunteer of the Year from 10 finalists from schools around Irvine. As part of the award, Bonita Canyon will receive a $1,000 grant from the Irvine Education Foundation, which sponsored the honor.

The mother of three got involved in her local elementary school soon after her family moved to Irvine from Illinois seven years ago. Kelly said she was “propelled” into parent activism after discovering California’s “financial crisis in education.”

Working with the Legislative Action Network, she and other Irvine parents campaigned successfully in 1988 for a state ballot measure that secured minimum education funding levels.

More recently, Kelly has focused her attention on helping supplement Bonita Canyon’s classroom lessons with community activities. In 1990 and 1991, students formed a relationship with a squadron of Marines and their families at the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station.

When some of the Marines were called to service during the Persian Gulf War, the students offered various kinds of support. They became pen pals with soldiers in the Middle East, collected gifts, sports equipment and food for the families that remained on the base, and held a holiday party.

Last year, the students continued their community service work by collecting food for Irvine Temporary Housing, a nonprofit agency that provides low-cost housing.

“I’ve never seen education as an isolated little island,” said Kelly, a former high school teacher. “The kids realize they are making a difference. I think that’s an incredible knowledge and feeling.”