Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Crystal Clear: Parent volunteer Carrie Maietta, center left, is surrounded by children who participated in the 'Stepping Stone project' at Booksin Elementary School. She will be honored April 19 by the Junior League of San Jose with a Crystal Bowl Award for her dedicated volunteer efforts.




Junior League gives Booksin volunteer Crystal Bowl Award

By Amy Jenkins

In addition to providing a quality curriculum and ample space on the playground, beautiful grounds are also an important factor at an elementary school. Since teachers are often busy with classroom work and don't have time to work on landscaping, volunteers may offer to pitch in.

This is the case at Booksin Elementary School, in Willow Glen, where parent volunteer Carrie Maietta has spent four years not only pulling weeds and planting flowers but also organizing help from other parent volunteers.

For her hard work, the Junior League of San Jose is recognizing Maietta with one of its Crystal Bowl awards. She is one of 17 outstanding volunteers being honored at the league's annual Volunteer Recognition Awards luncheon April 19 at the San Jose Double Tree Hotel. The winners of the 2002 Volunteer Recognition Award will be presented with crystal bowls from Tiffany & Co. at the luncheon. The league is a nonprofit organization that trains women volunteers to improve the community.

The league received 93 nominations this year and a panel of judges narrowed the number down based on the number of hours for volunteering, among other things, says Julie Slocum, luncheon chairwoman.

"There are lots and lots of volunteers at the school but I sent in an application for Carrie because she does so much work for the school," says Booksin Elementary School Principal Wendy Carlson.

Whenever there is a patch of dirt or weeds, Maietta envisions what can be planted or what additions can be made to the area, Carlson says. She has planted red and white roses in the front of the school and red geraniums around the premises because those are the school colors, Carlson says.

The recognition came as a surprise to Maietta. "I was amazed when I was told that I was chosen," she says.

Maietta, a Willow Glen resident for 15 years, first became involved in helping the school because she and her husband, Michael, wanted to be active in their children's education, she says. Now her daughter is in third grade and her son is in fifth grade at Booksin, but she started to become an active mother when the two attended San Jose Parent Participation Preschool, she says.

One unique project she pioneered at Booksin Elementary was the making of kindergarten stepping stones. Four years ago, when she saw a dirt patch on the campus, she envisioned filling the space with something beautiful. So she mixed and poured concrete into round molds and kindergarten students added some of their favorite things from home.

"They are little stories about each kid," Maietta says. "I tell them that each stone tells a story about who they are."

Each stone is unique, filled with toy lizards, necklaces, colorful marbles and toy soldiers. Each one is finished off with the child's name engraved into it with a stick, while the concrete is still wet.

This year Maietta will begin the project with the kindergarten students in mid-April and will spend two weeks from start to finish. Each year 140 students have participated, bringing the total number of completed stepping stones to a whopping 560.

Because her son did not get the chance to make a stepping stone, Maietta will work on a patriotic mural with the fourth- and fifth-grade classes this year. That project will start once the stepping stones are finished, she says.

"We're going to make it so everyone has a piece of work in concrete at the school," Carlson says.

Maietta contributes an average of between 10 and 15 volunteer hours per week, Carlson says. When she is not busy pulling weeds or gardening, she helps watch the children at lunchtime.

"[Carrie] does everything from the heart," says Dawn Talley, who also volunteers on the playground during lunch.

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