Principals, vice-principals, teacher-librarians, and students come and go at Meadowvale Village Public School, but the real institution remains: volunteer Polly Beckett.
A 50-year resident of Mississauga, Beckett sent all of her own children, John, Bruce, Peter and Roxanne to the little school on Derry Rd. W. in the historic village. When her youngest was five, Polly started helping out a little more around the school.
A little help around the school has turned into 41 years of loving labour in the school library, and we don’t mean coming in for a couple of afternoons to dust bookshelves.
You know how they love to call the library everything-but-the-library these days? Well, Polly was a resource centre before anyone knew what a resource centre was.
When a book got damaged, she took it home and mended it carefully. When a class was doing a unit in some subject and the library lacked certain books, she rounded them up and brought them in.
Teacher-librarian Joanne Kostiuk said Monday that teachers all know and love Polly’s “collection” as she called it. “She is the one to pull books for a unit of study on magnets or to bring material from home to support almost any program. This generally means a bag filled with anything from cardboard boxes to dictionaries; newspaper articles to fly swatters; tiny red envelopes for Chinese New Year or lights for an official school opening.”
She’s brought in tools, had husband Tommy make door stops, and even managed to come up with stuffed animals when required.
Her own grandchildren, Devon and Paulina, had their child care program in the Meadowvale Village program with their Nana.
Not much fazes our Polly, except maybe, being the centre of attention.
She accepted her award of recognition from the Peel District School Board as one of its champion volunteers in 2003 shortly after she suffered two broken arms in a fall. When the school had a flood in 2005, she was on hand to help with all the hard slogging.
But when they named the library in the brand new Meadowvale Village Public School (the fourth school in its 171-year history) in her honour today, Beckett was a very reluctant recipient.
Her daughter Roxanne says her mother is just “very humble in her accomplishments. She is a core part of this school. If there is anything, anytime to do in this library or this school, she is here without hesitation.”
The 82-year-old, “loves to keep involved with this community and to keep up to date. And she loves the interaction with the children,” said her only daughter.
In an interview, Kostiuk said some of the teachers were worried that Polly was so attached to the old library and the old school that the transition to the new building would be problematic. “ But they needn’t have worried. She was ready to dig right in like she always does,” said Kostiuk. “Sure there were some regrets about some of the things that you leave behind, but she moves forward.” As for the special spirit that the dedicated volunteer brings, “we’ve captured that and brought it along with us here,” laughs the teacher-librarian.
And what does Polly have to say on the subject? As little as possible.
A gentle spirit with one of those smiles that seems to be lit from a secret power within, Beckett said mockingly, “I’m a volunteer. I don’t want all this adulation.”
She would have much preferred this morning to be straightening the shelves while a teacher read a story to a bunch of six-year-olds sprawled on the new carpets of the library than to be the subject of a standing ovation in the brand new gym.
Asked about her new superstar status, Polly responds with a joke: “I’m expecting much more respect from the administration and the teachers.”
It really isn’t too difficult to figure out what makes Polly run. She loves books and she loves children. “When I come in every morning I know I’m needed. I just want to help out.”
Help she has, for more than 40 years.
These days, it seems everyone has a motivation for volunteering: so it will look good on a resumé or so that it will garner positive media coverage.
Polly Beckett just wants to help out, and she’d rather not have any fuss about it, thank you very kindly.
If you’re looking for a volunteer for glory, you’ve clearly come to the wrong person.