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| Pat Wilson taught for 29 years at Manchester School in Windham and in retirement has spent years volunteering for non-profit organizations in Westbrook. On Aug. 18, Wilson will be honored with the 2021 Highland Grange Award at the Highland Lake Community Center. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
Former Windham teacher Pat Wilson has devoted her life to the service of others
and for her efforts in making a difference for so many, the Highland Lake
Grange is recognizing her with the 2021 Highland Grange Award.
The honor is given to Westbrook residents who have made a significant difference in the lives of others through community service. To celebrate her accomplishments, grange members present her the award at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18 at the Highland Lake Community Center.
According to Larry Levesque, a Highland Lake Grange
member, the Grange Service Award salutes an individual who makes a significant
difference in the lives of others, and he said Wilson fits that description
perfectly.
Levesque said that Wilson has devoted a lifetime
to the service of family, friends and the Windham and Westbrook communities.
Over the last several years she has donated many hours-of-service volunteering
one day a week at the Westbrook Community Center in Cornelia’s Closet, the
thrift store in Westbrook and after seeing a need for volunteers at the
Westbrook Community Center’s food pantry, she started volunteering there one
day a week as well.
Just the other day, sitting next to the large windows in her kitchen during an
afternoon thundershower, she talked of just that. She had spent the last few
months collecting bundles of clothes that were now piling up to overflowing in
her closet.
“I wanted to take the bags of clothes over to the
thrift store today,” she said, “but with this unexpected rain, I will have to
put it off until another day. For the last several years, I have taken my
personal jewelry over as well. I love to see how happy it makes the customers
at the thrift store to receive something so beautiful.”
Her sense of goodness draws many to her which is
evident when she talks of how the customers at the food pantry invite her to
attend their luncheons and are anxious to sit and talk for a while whenever she
is volunteering at the pantry.
Her former students at Manchester Elementary,
where she taught for 29 years, feel the same way. Today they have grown to
adults, and many follow her on Facebook.
She said that she set high expectations for each
one of her students and tried to individualize instruction to meet their
specific needs.
“When I was teaching, every day I would try to
find something fun and interesting to include in my lesson plans, something to
be sure each student would learn and grow.”
Now many years later, she still tries to meet those individual needs of her former students by posting things she thinks they might be interested in learning mixed with a lot of humor.
“They need humor to survive in this challenging
world,” she said, as a beautiful smile lightened her face. Looking out the
window to the rain, which now had turned to a heavy downpour, she reflected on
one of her only regrets as a teacher. “I wish I would have had more time to get
to know a lot more about each one of my students so I could have better
prepared them to meet their life challenges.”
In 1998, Wilson retired from teaching to take care of her husband who had
suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair. Her husband enjoyed
traveling, and Pat was by his side each step of the way helping him to enjoy
the things he loved to do.
Her daughter, Kathleen Burkhart, shared insight
into how much Pat loved her dad and her dedication to him.
“Mum’s time was dedicated to Dad and his needs and
the groups he belonged to,” Burkhart said. “She was a fantastic caregiver for
29 years. Yes, 29 years with him in a wheelchair.”
Burkhart also spoke of ways that her mother has served
in the community.
“Many years ago, Mum started the Westbrook
Festival of Trees in my grandmother’s name, Beatrice Elwell, because gram loved
Christmas so much,” she said. “The charities that were recipients of the
donations have been Westbrook Police, Tots for Tots, Mission Possible, Animal
Refuge League, camperships for Pilgrim Lodge and Westbrook Warren
Congregational Church.”
After retiring from teaching, her mother
volunteered with the Cumberland County Retired Educators Association writing
the newsletter and working to help get better benefits for teachers and
retirees,” Burkhart said.
Following her mother’s death, Wilson volunteered
at the hospital where her mother spent the last weeks of her life. She has been
a member of the Westbrook Warren Congregational Church since she was 11 years
old and has served on the Christian Education Board and the Deacons Committee
at the church for many years.
About five years ago, Wilson worked with a local,
young Somalian man to help get his family to the United States. She started by
paying him to do odd jobs and eventually made a large donation to his cause.
Even though on a Friday afternoon, many years ago, Wilson closed the door for
the last time in her fifth-grade classroom at Manchester School, she still
continues to inspire us through the example of the often-forgotten principles
of empathy, compassion and service. <
