Everyday Heroes: AFT Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel finalists

Voting is open
May 9 - 29, 2016

Tammy Arvin
Sign language interpreter/aide
Peoria Federation of Support Staff, Peoria, Ill.

Tammy Arvin is assigned to a fifth-grader born nearly deaf. Cochlear implants help the child hear, but he relies a lot on Arvin, his sign language interpreter. She felt bad for her student, Rhemy Elsey, as she would for any kid who has to be trailed by an adult all day, so Arvin was glad last fall when Rhemy's classmates agreed to learn sign language through a club that meets during recess and after school. The kids just wanted to talk with their friend.

Now their class starts every day by signing the Pledge of Allegiance. And they chat in American Sign Language."It's like … it's like they want to be like me," Rhemy told local media. The children have made great strides in understanding the language, and their friend is helping them learn it. He's made a unique sign for each of their names.

Arvin also takes time to contribute to her union, the Peoria Federation of Support Staff, by volunteering as a work-site leader at her school and making sure members' voices are heard."She is an amazing interpreter and so dedicated to her profession," her nominator says. "We are all extremely proud of her. We believe she is the person who should win this award."

Don Dolan
Special needs school bus driver
Oregon School Employees Association, Chapter 103, Sherwood, Ore.

Don Dolan is a retired railroad worker and union member, so when he went back to work about six years ago as a special education bus driver, he didn't really owe the world a thing. Yet, each May since then, as he picks up and delivers schoolchildren with disabilities, Dolan, now a member of the Oregon School Employees Association, has co-chaired a big, fun carnival for special needs kids.

Using the school bus facility as his base of operations, Dolan works hard in his spare time, organizing raffles and soliciting cash, food and prizes from the community to stage the two-hour event.

Because many of the regular school bus drivers are out on their routes and field trips during the carnival itself, Dolan recruits a dozen or so fellow railroad retirees to run games, award prizes and present each child with a gift bag. The donations pay for pony rides and a reptile handler, as well as the food and prizes. Volunteers from local police and fire departments bring their rigs to the event, which also draws the school superintendent and media coverage. "These special needs kids from all grades look forward to this event each year," Dolan's nominator writes, "as it is just for them."

Brenda Johnson
Transition specialist
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Educational Support Professionals

Besides love, the things students in a juvenile facility may need most of all are structure and consistency.Brenda Johnson provides all those things.

Every Sunday, Johnson teams up with a social worker to meet and greet families of incoming high school students at Stadium View School. On Tuesdays, she follows up with students in the classroom. On Wednesdays, she makes phone calls to families who visited. Once a month like clockwork, there is a parent council meeting on a Thursday evening. Each family gets a calendar. If asked, she will accompany students when they must appear in court.

Through all of this, Johnson is "the point person for all families," her nominator says. She has a wonderful working relationship with supervisors and community partners, and because of her skills at outreach, school employees "pride themselves on building relationships."

The pinnacle of Johnson's work has been a Freedom School at the facility for the past three years, in which parents and the community are invited for a night of celebrating students' academic progress. The next day, school and elected officials visit. "People as far away as Australia have come," her nominator writes, "to see how Brenda has engaged parents and supported students in and out of the system."

James Mucci
School custodian
AFT Local 604, Crest Hill, Ill.

Galloway Elementary School's morning custodian, James Mucci, can rightly be called unique. Yes, he has a normal job in the Channahon School District, taking care of his school building, making sure it's clean and that everything works. He swabs floors, scrapes up gum, replaces lights and even paints the walls every now and then.

Mucci hovers over preschoolers to second-graders like a dad in the halls and lunchroom, dispensing fatherly advice as he works. He hovers over them saying "hi" as they arrive in the morning and "bye" as they leave in the afternoon. But Mucci is not like a helicopter parent. He's more like a butterfly. That's because his passion is butterflies. He loves them so much, and loves his job so much, that he shared his family hobby of raising monarch butterflies with all the students by bringing in butterflies, caterpillars and eggs so the kids could learn about the creatures' life cycles. The children gave him a book of thank-you notes in return.

Not only does Mucci work well with students, his nominator says, but he constantly helps teachers by tying shoes, zipping zippers and getting the children ready to meet life. His students, the school staff and his union, AFT Local 604, are lucky to have him.

Luigi Quintos
Courier driver and facilities staff
Oregon School Employees Association, Chapter 95, Salem, Ore.

By the very nature of his job as a courier driver for the Willamette schools in western Oregon, Luigi Quintos touches a lot of people. What makes him an everyday hero is another way he touches people—through his generosity as an artist.

Quintos brings comfort to families in grief over the death of child by drawing a portrait of their lost one. He started with a family whose only pictures of their child had included hospital tubes and equipment. By capturing the baby's image without medical trappings, he brought solace to the parents, who asked if they could share it with their support group.

Word spread. Soon Quintos, who is self-taught and does not accept payment, found himself making portraits for hundreds of bereaved families across 30 states and five countries. He responds to every request, even if it takes some time; there are about 200 families on a waiting list. Each sketch takes a few hours.

Quintos' family had their own scare about a year ago, when the man who has brought so much joy suffered a heart attack that put him out of commission for a while. Now he is back at work for the schools, back as a member of the Oregon School Employees Association and back living his childhood dream to become an artist.