Wow. Market day is a BIG Job!!!!  Isn't that where people order frozen foods and you have to organize all the orders in the gym and get people to pick them up? It's kind of like being the Girl Scout Cookie Mom, only the products melt!

I started out as a Brownie Leader, then a Den Mother, then a Girl Scout leader - for about 10 years.  I know that's not really a "school volunteer" position, but it did suck the life outta me.

School wise, I volunteered for the elementary school library. I loved it. I learned the Dewey Decimal system inside and out, helped all the little kids pick out the books..."um I wanna book about, ummmmm, penguins!"  or "I want the book that Jenny had last week" or "I want the pink book".  Fun times!  I also got to know so many children in town this way.  Years later, I'd be interested to know what they did after they graduated from HS - who went to college, who went into the service, who got married, who HAD to get married, etc.  Really, sometimes I wasn't surprised. You can tell alot about kids based on what kind of books they took out. There was one little boy who ALWAYS took books out about machines. He now repairs BMWs.  I also learned how to catalogue books in the computer, scan them, put UPC numbers on the books, etc.  And I got to order books for the librarian...got to pick out the books myself! (nobody else got to do that, but after all the years I put in there, the librarian figured I knew what the kids wanted)

One my kids got into HS I volunteered in the guidance department for a year helping coordinate all the college applications, booklets, videos, etc.  My guess is, that job doesn't exist any more since kids do this all online now.

My biggest volunteer endeavor was being in charge of the HS band uniforms; marching and concert.  I made sure everyone had a marching band uniform that fit, a hat, gloves, etc.   And after marching band season, I was in charge of the concert band outfits. I measured all the freshman or new girls for blouses that they had to pay for themselves, and got them into an existing long black skirt that belonged to the band.  I made sure everyone paid, knew how to care for their clothes and before every concert I was the uniform nazi making sure they all had closed toed shoes and dark stockings.  The girls also wore a string of (cheap) pearls that I had a team of moms help put on each girl before the concert, and retrieve the pearls after the concerts.."the Pearl Moms".  Of course, I also repaired pearls after each concert, too!  The boys wore tuxedos. I had a guy from a tux place come in and measure every boy in the band for tuxes.  We had about 100 tuxes but invariably we had tiny guys or huge guys requiring a special order. Then each boy had to buy his own bow tie, cummerbund and white shirt. The Pearl Moms were also Stud Moms, making sure all the boys had studs on the night of the concert.  Again, I would make sure the boys had on black shoes and black socks.  You have no idea how awful it looks to see 125 people on stage and one kid's got on white socks. Or one girl has little pink toes peaking out from under her black skirt. Distracting.  I had to catalogue each uniform by number and keep track of what kid had what skirt or tux.  And I had to make sure everyone paid their money for the blouses or shirts. And then, at the end of the year, I had to collect them all, making sure the kids had all had their skirts and tuxes cleaned.  It was a huge undertaking but I loved it.  I had a blast with the band directors who kept me laughing. The kids were funny and fun. The tux man was a piece of work...think "Frahnnnzzz" in "Father of the Bride".  I did this job for 8 years..and one of those years, I didn't even have a child in the school. It was too complicated to train someone for a year, so I just did it.

So those were my "school volunteer" jobs.  They were so fun and really made my Stay at Home years seem worthwhile.

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Wow! You sure did a lot!! :) Sandigal

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