By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

Question: What do you get when you combine a passion for children, a green thumb and a giving heart?

Answer: A local resident who has been awarded a John Coskran Volunteer Award by the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District.

Michele Hertle has morphed from a mom volunteering in a classroom to a part-time employee and part-time volunteer at M. W. Savage Elementary School. She was one of 48 of people recognized recently in District 191 with a John Coskran Volunteer Award. Hertle was honored for staff involvement-good citizenship and promoting volunteerism.Michele Hertle: Volunteer Michele
Hertle reads a book with Sydney Long
on a recent afternoon at M.W. Savage
Ele-mentary School. Hertle was
awarded a John Coskran Volunteer
Award for staff involvement.

The award recognizes her cyclonic-like involvement in a variety of programs, to include Bucket Brigade, book discussions, campus beautification, levy campaigns, sorting books at Read Night, planning events and working as a Site Council member.

“Many students benefit directly from Michele’s efforts,” wrote Beth Spaude, a fellow volunteer, in her nomination of Hertle. “These programs have a direct and lasting affect on students involved, and the students love to be in these programs.”

Principal Ron Cin agrees.

“Michele really exemplifies what volunteering is all about,” he said. “She’s pretty awesome. If I could clone her I’d do it in a flash. She loves her work.”

Those efforts and volunteering qualities began to emerge when her oldest son, Ryan, was in second grade. At that point she was a stay-at-home mom and had a younger son, Grant. Hertle said she wanted to make the best of her time so she volunteered as a helper in Ryan’s classroom. Now Grant is in fifth grade at M.W. Savage and Ryan is a ninth-grader at Eagle Ridge Junior High School.

When she started volunteering in the classroom, Hertle also began attending Parent-Teacher Organizational meetings as a classroom representative. “I thought ‘what a great way to find out what goes on in a school,’” Hertle said.

After she felt like she had learned enough from the PTO, Hertle dove into the Site Council. “I thought there was more to learn about different things that go on,” she said. “So I kept volunteering.”

A few years into her volunteering Hertle applied and began working as the Students who Examine, Explore, and Keep Experimenting, and Researching to Share, or S.E.E.K.E.R.S. coordinator. Not long after, other opportunities seemed to grow out of the ground, literally.

An opportunity to attend a seminar on the importance of horticulture in the lives of children appealed to Hertle. Having grown up on a farm, she said she eventually learned to appreciate plants and was eager to pass that on.

“There’s a lot of good stuff in digging in dirt and getting your hands dirty,” she said.

Coming back revived, she used some of what she learned and implemented it into curriculum for the gifted-learning program she oversees.  

Evidence of that work can be seen in some classrooms where there are miniature glowing greenhouses with little plants. More evidence is outside around the campus and in the school’s courtyard. Hertle rallied her sons’ Cub Scout dens in the summer to plant seeds, pull weed and move mulch around. She now brings whole troops to the school to do some gardening.  

Cin sees the beautification work as a win-win. “We get some gardening done and they get to work towards awards.”

Hertle said the boys earn green thumb awards, but also get a sense of pride as many of them attend the school and can watch things blossom and grow throughout the year.

When her hands aren’t buried in the ground, they’re buried in books.

Hertle has volunteered at the school’s “Read Night” where families participate in a massive book exchange for a few years. “Most book swaps become piles of books with no rhyme or reason,” said Bev Leonard in her nomination form. “Michele uses every spare minute … to organize the books by author and age group to make choosing books a pleasure for children and parents.”

Hertle also keeps her hands busy by passing out fliers during levy campaigns. “I believe in education,” she said. “I don’t like politics … I wasn’t sure how political everything was. I wondered why not put money in and vote for education.”

While Hertle said she doesn’t have a glass case to display the award in, it will hang in the office with other awards her family acquired. “I’m so thankful to have been allowed the opportunity I’ve been given,” she said. “I really just have a passion for it.”

BankCherokee

BankCherokee in Savage was also presented with a John Coskran Award.

The bank was nominated by Volunteer Organized Seminars (VOS) Coordinator Clare Anderson for Community Involvement as a Business for donating money to Harriet Bishop Elementary.

“What was really unique was how the bank approached the school; they said ‘We’re here. How can we help?’” Anderson said.

Bank President Heidi Gesell said the outreach is one rooted in their values.

“Support is one of our long-standing efforts in our community,” Gesell said. “As a community bank, BankCherokee looks for ways we can help support the community and make it stronger, schools are just one way of doing that.”

The bank annually donates $800 to Harriet Bishop. The money is used to sponsor VOS, including the recent 21-day Challenge.

Anderson said the bank chooses which of the seminars they want to sponsor and contributes to the cost. “They’re very supportive, it’s not just financial support, but the look at which seminar would hold a great value,” she said.

Gessel said it was another of their values.

“Being a family owned organization, it’s central to who we are, we want to support that,” she said.

 Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.