Get involved and help out

At first the volunteering was not quite so voluntary. When Bernie and Regina Vecsey realized one of their sons was having problems at school, they began helping out.

Their son, in Grade 1 at the time, was later diagnosed as having severe dyslexia, which meant he had great difficulty in recognizing the written word. At the time, most educators didn't know a lot about severe dyslexia.

"At first, it was downplayed as behaviour problems," and the Vecseys were told their son just had to try harder.

"So my wife and I were at the school almost every day, helping him succeed. I soon realized there was so much you should do and that teachers, especially those with big classes, need support," said Bernie.

That was back in 1994, soon after the Vecsey family moved to Powell River from Ontario. Although Bernie didn't know it at the time, the seeds had been planted for him to take the Support Services Worker Certificate Program.

From then on, whenever help in school was needed and the shifts at work permitted, he volunteered. Sometimes it was once a week helping out with the Grade 3 reading group, other times, it was helping out twice a week with the morning cross-country run.

For Bernie, it always has been, and still is, important to get involved in community or school.

Bernie recalled a time when his oldest son was listening to the folk song Cat's in the Cradle, by Harry Chapin, and it seemed that the son in the song was challenging him in a funny way about his involvement in his own son's life.

The song talks about a child being born and how the father was busy making a living. "But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away."

As Bernie listened to the lyrics he knew he didn't want to miss his children growing up and so he vowed to become an involved parent and spend as much time with his family as possible.

It was challenging because Bernie worked out of town for several years and was home only on weekends.

So when the opportunity arose for him to retrain, he took advantage of it and took the Social Services Worker certificate from 2000 to 2002, while working on-call for PRACL.

It was this helping hands attitude that led Bernie and Regina to spend hours in the classroom while their four children were growing up. From classroom helper to parent volunteer with the PAC (Parent Advisory Council) and then onto DPAC (District Parent Advisory Council), Bernie has been and still is an involved parent. He was the DPAC chair and during that time attended almost every school board meeting.

"I spent countless hours volunteering," said Bernie. "As long as my kids were in school or involved in any group we helped out."

DPAC is the umbrella organization of the PAC's from each school and usually one representative from each PAC attends DPAC meetings, which the board chair and superintendent also attend. Everyone is updated about what is happening in the district.

"I was the spokesperson for DPAC as chair, vice-chair or as a member of the executive for several years," Bernie explained. DPAC work was interesting for Bernie; he was on the District Nutrition Committee and the "Youth Drug Task Force," and the Brooks Expansion Committee, where he emphasized the importance of the trades in high school. One program in particular parents were advocating for was the Secondary School Apprenticeship Program, which offers the student while in Grade 10 to 12 an apprenticeship, half-time in school the other half in a shop. The difficulty in Powell River was the small number of employers willing or able to take a student on only half-time. The Dual Credit programs are a more successful way to accomplish that.

One thing led to another and during all this Bernie got to know trustees and staff. Bernie remembers when the late Geoff Clarke came up with the BOATT program, and how excited he was about it after several years of frustrating encounters in "Youth Drug Task Force" meetings where other stakeholders did not see a need for young people to have outlets other than organized club activities.

"I recognized the importance of life skills for young adults and outdoors has always been my interest. It's important for students to find some purpose. My argument has always been that we need to offer something else for students in the school besides academics."

Case in point: Bernie has four children, three of whom have already graduated. One is a carpenter; one is an investment banker and the other is studying kinesiology.

Before moving to Canada, Bernie volunteered at youth centres in his native Germany, so he knew how much of a need existed for youth. Support Service Assistants, or educational assistants as they are often called, provide support to students. Three years ago, when the trades program began, a trades assistant was needed. "The combination of my journeyman trades experience and education assistant made me a perfect fit."

Bernie spent two years working with the Brooks Dual Credit welding program and for the last year he has been with the automotive program, and when needed with other elective trades programs in Brooks School.

"I believe a student has to want to come to school and to have fun at school or he won't learn."

When students disengage and tune out they are unable to retain information and won't learn new skills.

"When students learn life skills and critical thinking skills, they are able to deal with any life situation and other skills will follow automatically."

© POWELL RIVER LIVING: May 2009