Dedicated volunteers

“One red valentine, two red valentines,

Three red valentines, four…

We’ll cut and cut and paste and paste

And then make twenty more.”

It’s Monday noon and the art room at Sorensen Elementary School is buzzing … not with chattering children, but with the friendly visiting of the Sorensen Grandmas, as they cut and cut and paste and paste.

For the past 16 years, these dedicated women have volunteered each week in Anne Couser’s classroom, working one-on-one with first-graders learning to read and, more recently, assisting her with art-related projects.

“They are ever-faithful,” says David Groth, a Sorensen fifth-grade teacher. “They look not too different from kindergartners when they’re tracing and cutting materials for lessons.”

The team of grandmothers currently consists of Midge Thysell, the Norwegian contingency, Lois Carlson, the Swedish voice, Anna Mae Dlouhy, the queen of blue jeans, “Sweet Mary” Sorenson, and Lorna Sears, Coeur d’Alene’s queen of stain removal. Although membership has changed throughout the years, the spirit of the group has remained constant. In 2004, “Anne Couser’s Sorensen Grandparents’ Volunteer Group” was given the Coeur d’Alene Education Association’s Friends of Education Award, for contributing more than 1,760 hours of service since 1990.

“Usually I give the grandmas quite a variety of jobs, such as filing, cutting, gluing, stapling, and sometimes I give them what I call a ‘junk job’ like emptying glue bottles into each other, mixing paints or sharpening pencils,” says Couser. “If I ever give them a job that they don’t want to do, no one will say anything except Lois. She’ll stick up for the whole group and say something like ‘I think we all have to leave a little early today.’ She takes care of the grandmas.”

Carlson is the baby of the group, having joined only eight years ago when she and her husband moved to Coeur d’Alene from the Midwest.

“After playing a word game with half a dozen first-graders, one of the boys stayed and helped me pick up all the cards, and when I thanked him, he replied, ‘Oh, I like helping old ladies,’ ” Carlson recalls. “We all had a good laugh. Kids are precious. You never know what they’ll say. I feel so blessed having met this group of ladies who’ve become my good friends.”

Communicating with Couser and each other via e-mail, the group shares jokes and book recommendations. They used to bring a brown-bag lunch to the school each week, but, according to Thysell, now “this has grown into a monthly Grandma’s lunch for the five of us.”

“We try a different restaurant each time.” Couser adds. “They really should be restaurant critics!”

Most of the grandparents began volunteering when their grandchildren began school. These grandchildren are now graduating from college, but the grandmas haven’t been excused from class.

“Quitting is not an option,” says Couser. “They’re committed until death do us part!”

Dlouhy and her husband, Bill, started working in Anne’s classroom when their granddaughter, Katelyn Dlouhy, started school.

“When Bill was in his last stages of cancer and couldn’t come up the stairs to help in the classroom, we set him up at the base of the stairs and the kids would go down to read with Grandpa Bill,” Couser recalls. “They loved Bill Dlouhy and I knew he loved to work with them. He wrote a story with a group of students using a Remington art print I had in my room. The picture was of a cowboy on a bucking bronco, and the story they wrote together was hysterical. When they read it Bill used a cowboy accent. I still have that story.”

Thysell began volunteering when her grandson, Kristofer, started school. She recalls that a photographer visited Couser’s classroom, and Anne, in an effort to set up a “photo opportunity,” asked one of the first-graders to show his appreciation for Midge.

“His hug was not too enthusiastic,” says Midge, “and Anne said he could do better. He gave me a huge hug, which took my breath away, and the photographer got a very funny picture.”

“Sweet Mary” Sorensen, one of Anne’s neighbors, began volunteering about a decade ago. She remembers a particularly touching story.

“A first-grader who wasn’t ready for school had a lot of trouble doing his work and fitting in, so Anne decided he should repeat the grade and his mother agreed,” Sorensen recalls. “While Anne was discussing with the class their year coming up, the second grade, she told them that this lucky pupil would be staying with her for another year as her helper. And, because he knew a lot about the first grade, he’d be especially valuable help to her. He was proud of his special status, and a lot of the others thought they’d like to stay, too! Thanks to Anne’s sensitive handling, that little boy was the envy of his classmates.”

The appreciation goes both ways. “Grandparents are just so patient,” Couser says. “One day after the grandmas left, one of my little boys came up to me and was telling me about ‘this girl.’ He told me how he hoped to see her again when she came back, and how nice she was, and how she told him what a great reader he was. Then I realized he was speaking about Lorna Sears. She took so much time with him.

“These grandmas are ageless to our students,” Couser says. “They have young hearts, caring hearts, and the children see right to their hearts.”