Kathy Sublette – Albemarle County
Tell us about your volunteer activities.
I taught high school English for over 30 years at Western Albemarle before I decided to volunteer at Crozet Elementary School after I retired. My granddaughters were both students there when I started in the fall of 2011. I have worked with literacy groups, facilitated research projects, helped students revise and edit their writing, and shelved books in the school library.
What inspires you to volunteer?
It’s particularly interesting to have the opportunity to see how language arts skills and a love of reading are being fostered at the elementary level. Since I spent my career mostly teaching Juniors and Seniors, I’ve enjoyed being part of the beginning of the language arts continuum.
If your volunteer work could make one long-lasting change, what would you want it be?
I hope that the students will keep their enthusiasm about writing as they grow older, so I try to encourage them to see it as a fun, creative process over which they have complete control. It’s great to see their enthusiasm about their writing; they take pride in formatting their pieces before they publish and are certainly more adept with the possibilities for unique presentations than I am. I recently learned how to insert hyper-links in a thought bubble from a fourth grader. Pretty cool!
What is a little-known fact about you?
As far as a little known fact, I’m the only person I know who saw the Beatles in concert. It was in Houston during the summer of 1965 and we paid the exorbitant sum of $5.00 a ticket! My father orchestrated it to make up for not allowing them to stay at The Monteleone Hotel, which he managed in New Orleans, the year before. We lived at the hotel, so I was a crestfallen 11 year old after his decision.
What brought you to Charlottesville/Albemarle County?
I have lived in Albemarle County since 1973, when my husband and I moved here from New Orleans so I could get two masters degrees at UVa.
