Ms. Dale Bruzzese was nominated for the Gordon Patterson Award ...

Nomination for the Gordon Patterson Award
Nominee: Dale Bruzzese
Nominated by St Anthony Home and School Association
Mrs. Dale Bruzzese is our beloved school secretary, the heart and spirit of St. Anthony
School. She has worked here for 18 years. She knows all of the parents and children by name
and knows all the specifics about each of us. She acts like a mother with the children,
consoling them, patching up wounds or working out disputes. She is gentle yet stern and is
keenly aware when kids have tricks up their sleeves.
Dale creates lasting bonds and friendships with her office volunteers or sidekicks. We have
had many parents continue on after their children were long gone from our school to
continue helping for their afternoon time with Dale. We have 3 such parents who will finish
working at school when she does at the end of this year.
Since the start at our school we can remember how she encourages new parents to volunteer
at the kindergarten open house. We recall her enumerating all the ways parents can help in
our school and remember her telling that it is because of our great parent involvement in the
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school that we have such a great community. We on Home and School believe it. She often
communicates that without parent involvement within the school many projects could not
be done. The extra help from volunteers allow for extra reading help at the lower level, allow
us to have library time, math games once a week in our kindergarten classes. We've seen it to
believe it.
Long before our start on the parent association she has been a source of advice and
information for what is now our Home and School. Dale helped us transition to having our
own Home and School account. She helps us with most of our questions dealing with money
mysteries during our fundraising and has helped us attack all angles of a problem. She is
eager to help or steer us on new projects. She also helps us find supplies and teaches us how
to use the photocopier and fax again and again with a smile.
She is knowledgeable about the feeling of our school. She is very in tune with parent
volunteers, the staff and the children and is able to lend a hand when we have touchy issues.
We have been so lucky to have such a supporter of parent involvement here at St. Anthony
School.
With our Mrs. Bruzzese retiring this year from St. Anthony School we think it is befitting
that she be honored with a nomination for this award because of her ongoing support of
parent volunteers within the school. She is an asset to our school and community and sadly
she will be missed.
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