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 Gerry, has an amazing resumé and record of service, including 46 years as
an educator, 36 of them in Plano ISD. During that time Gerry became
Director of Language Arts for the district, Reading Recovery site
coordinator, Teacher Leader and served on local, state and national
reading councils and in consultant roles. She also managed to find
time to pursue her doctorate and teach in the education departments
at East Texas State University, Texas Woman’s University, University
of Texas at Dallas and the Ohio State University; and to publish
more than 40 articles, training modules, and videos for reading
instruction; and to serve on a state legislative committee.
Her
honors include being named Plano Teacher of the Year, Top ten Texas
Teachers of the Year, receiving the Distinguished Reading Service
Award from Texas State Council of Reading, being elected to Who’s
Who in American Women, Who’s Who in American Education,15th
Edition of The World’s Who’s Who of Women, Literacy Education and a
2006 Volunteer of the Year recipient in the the Educational
category from the Retired Teachers Association.
She
was recently awarded the medal of honor from the American
Biographical Institute, 2000 Millenium and was the recipient
of the
Collin
County Volunteer of the Year in the education category.
What does this mean for
Journey of Hope and for children who are grieving the loss of a
loved one? It placed her in the unique position of seeing new
possibilities of how to help children learn to mourn their loss
in a safe, nurturing environment created at Journey of Hope. Gerry
became curriculum writer for Journey of Hope and was soon asked to
write a set of lesson plans to be published by one of the leading
national publishers of grief support books and materials. Gerry set
to work, in between her many volunteer duties at Journey of
Hope—preparing biweekly curriculum, gathering materials for
curriculum activities and reading hundreds of children’s books on
grief and grief support resources in order to bring together the
best resources for her book. Somehow, she managed it all, and the
book, Plans: Using Stories to help explain death and the
grieving process to elementary school age children, was
published in 2005 and is available to everyone through
Centering Corporation or Journey of Hope.
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One of
the most inspiring things about Gerry is her energy and quickness
for grasping a theme and immediately seeing a dozen—or two
dozen—possibilities for making a meaningful lesson out of it: A
lesson that will not only appeal to young grievers, but also provide
them with insight into their own emotions and needs as they learn to
cope with loss. Her wealth of knowledge and understanding of
children’s developmental needs coupled with her vast mental library
of books and her never-ending fondness for discovering new books and
creating new lessons benefits every grieving child at Journey of
Hope.
Her
exceptional influence does not end at Journey of Hope or in our very
luck community. This year, alone, Gerry will present at two
national conferences on Children’s Grief work to share her ideas.
(She has already presented at the Texas Counselors Association
meeting). Counselors in Frisco, Plano, Richardson, Garland,
Coppell, and others have their hands on a new resource to help
children who face the trauma and stress of death intruding in their
young lives.
Her
presentations and her book are setting a new course for working with
grieving children. She would say, “Well, everyone loves a story.
Why not let stories speak to children and let children write their
stories.” And she has done just that at Journey of Hope—this year
every child, from preschool through teens wrote their own book, My
Journey, using the materials and inspiration that Gerry provided
in her lessons for JOH.
 And
finally, in a most benevolent gesture, Gerry assigned all profit
proceeds from the book to Journey of Hope…our coffers are already
benefiting in just three months of sales.
Journey
of Hope is grateful for such an outstanding volunteer, and the
children of Plano, North Texas, and the nation are reaping the
benefit of her volunteerism and goodness. She helps heal broken
hearts by sharing her love of books and reading and by her generous
heart and extraordinary gift of caring. She definitely deserves
all the awards she has earned. Thank you Gerry for putting
Journey of Hope on the map as a children’s grief support center! |
