Storytime Volunteer Is Perfect Example of Lifelong Learner, Teacher

	Pat Mackey really never left the classroom. She retired from teaching first grade and immediately started putting her love of books and experience to work as a Storytime volunteer.

Pat Mackey is a retired first-grade teacher and librarian, but there really is nothing retired about her. She still takes in all she can about early childhood education and how children best learn. Then she applies all she knows to the benefit of toddlers and preschoolers. This 13-year Storytime veteran moves from center to center every couple of years so she can learn more and help more children.

“I like to see what’s out there – the different settings and the way things are run,” said Pat. “Also, I have so many of my own materials that I’ll go through them all and move on, but mostly I am interested in the different ways of doing things.”

Pat has three children and five grandchildren, the youngest of whom is a high school sophomore and the oldest of whom is working on her doctorate. She had just retired from teaching and was reading the paper when she heard about MWFB.

“It had a photo of Mary Jan and an article about a new program she was starting reading to preschoolers, and I thought it would be a good fit for me.

“From my years teaching first grade, I saw such a difference in the children who came from homes where they had been read to. They were so much more ready to get into a formal setting of learning to read.”

 

Children’s Delight, Funny Moments Keep Her Coming Back for More

Like all Storytime volunteers, the best part of being a MWFB volunteer for Pat is the children’s sheer delight and excitement, and of course, the silly things they say and do.

“One little girl came up to me and said, ‘Hi old lady. I like your lips!’ I thought that was so funny, obviously her mom doesn’t wear lipstick!”

There is no doubt that Pat Mackey’s lifelong love of books and reading is paying off for the hundreds of children she has read to over the years.

“As a child, whenever we would go on a trip I would carry with me a bunch of books, not necessarily even my favorites, I just wanted to have books with me at all times. I loved pop-up-books, especially Puss-in-Boots.

“I have a special collection of pop-up-books to this day,” she explained. “I tell the kids they are like dessert. If the kid’s attention is waning, I pull out a pop-up-book and get them back right away.”

 

“From my years teaching first grade, I saw such a difference in the children who came from homes where they had been read to. They were so much more ready to get into a formal setting of learning to read.”
‑ Pat Mackey