HEREABOUTS sandra baer
Kelly George is a parent volunteer who really makes a difference in the school district. The mother of four children has spent many years volunteering in the schools and currently holds the position of PTO co-president at Stingley Elementary School.
“I think we all have something we focus on, whether it’s sports, or kid’s activities and I’ve just chosen school,” said George, who shares the PTO president position with Shari Salyers. “I’m so appreciative of the great teachers at Stingley and everything they’re doing for my children, that it’s just my way of giving back.”
George was born in Indianapolis, but moved to Oakwood at an early age. She attended Smith School in Oakwood until the fifth grade when she moved to Kettering and attended Southdale Elementary School. After graduating in the first combined class at Fairmont High School in 1986, she studied sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.
“I met my husband, Michael, the first summer I came home from college,” said George, who transferred to Wright State University to complete her degree.
The couple wed in 1990, and moved to Lebanon so that George could travel to Cincinnati to work at PNC Bank while her husband, a MetLife employee, drove to the MetLife office in Springboro. After the birth of their children, the family moved to Centerville and lived across the street from the house where Michael was raised by his parents, Ruth and Glenn George, who now live in Washington Twp.
Kelly George has four children: Sam, a freshman at Centerville High School; Abby, a sixth-grade student studying online at the Ohio Virtual Academy Charter School; Adam a fourth-grade student at Stingley and a member of the Dayton Dutch Lions soccer team; and Josie, a second-grade student at Stingley.
“I stopped working when Sam was about a year and a half,” said George, who currently works part time as an independent educational representative for Usborne Books & More.
“I started going to the PTO meetings at Stingley and gradually got more and more involved. I love to read, so the first major PTO project that I worked on was developing an after-school reading program with another parent, Carolyn Meininger, and the principal, Diana Keller. The program, Chapters and Chips, was one component of a year-long push on reading called COLORS, for Celebrating Our Love of Reading at Stingley. We read books while the children ate a snack and then each child received a copy of the book that was read. The students and teachers really liked it, so it’s still ongoing.”
George also added barcodes to books and reorganized the school’s bookroom so teachers could find and check out grade-level books for their students to read. George also volunteers in classrooms as needed and co-chairs the school carnival, which is a major fundraiser.
During the summer, George enjoys traveling with her family to their family cabin in Canada that is located on an island with one other cabin and is only accessible by boat.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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