West Newsmagazine 11-1-23

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Former Marquette teacher shares passion for
community service with German students
November 1, 2023
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
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German exchange students help build beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace. (Kim Hotze photo)
By JEFFRY GREENBERG
“The future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor
Roosevelt. Kim Hotze has long lived by
that saying. But it took a couple decades
or so for long-time Chesterfield resident to
realize her greatest passions and to share
them with the world.
Best known for being the Marquette
High German teacher for 30 years, Hotze
was also the school’s community service
instructor for 10 of those years. That expertise
helped her when she hosted Youth For
Understanding (YFU) for a special twoweek
project, Sept. 29 through Oct. 13.
YFU is best known for facilitating yearlong
study abroad programs for American
and international students, predominately
for high school students. However, the
recent two-week experience was focused on
service learning for 15 students, ages 15-17,
from several small villages in the state of
Thuringia. The students were accompanied
by two adults, who served as chaperones.
Hotze noted that Germany has an abundance
of social programs whereas Americans
depend on a lot of social organizations
and volunteers.
“What’s unique about this trip is that
students in Germany have a two-week fall
break. That’s when they arrived,” Hotze
said. “They all interviewed and came over
on German scholarships.”
Hotze noted that this was the first time
a YFU service-learning sabbatical was
conducted in St. Louis. She credited West
County resident Steven Rutherford with
getting it started and hiring her.
Hotze was a short-term hire to coordinate
the event, find host families and set up a
variety of community service projects. She
was given a budget and worked with students
on English lessons, fed them lunch
every day and arranged transportation.
“Sometimes they hire someone to do the
English class teaching and someone else
for the other job details,” Hotze explained.
“I told them I’d rather do both because I
needed to know where they were in English.
I also gave them a variety of activities
to see and learn because the goal is for
kids to go back to Germany and know that,
even as teenagers, they can promote volunteerism
at their school and do things in
their community to help each other.”
Before the trip, Hotze joined Rutherford
in recruiting local families from within
his network. Three families hosted two
students each for the two-week program.
They were recruited early enough so that
the German students could connect with
their host families well before arrival.
Among the places Hotze lined up for service
work was Five Acres Animal Shelter
in St. Charles, where the students made
items for the animals, such as snuffle mats
and chew toys.
The students also conducted a cleanup
effort at Johnson Shut-ins and Elephant
Rocks state parks.
And for two days, the students worked
with the Youth Volunteer Corps organization
at Arlington United Methodist Church in
Bridgeton. As part of a larger outreach project
for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, they built
beds for kids. In two days they built 24 beds.
“That was an amazing thing,” Hotze said.
While she is grateful for all of the service
learning projects, Hotze insisted on
adding special thanks for the Schnucks at
Clarkson and Clayton roads. Not only did
the market act as home base for most of the
YFU projects, the store also let the students
its second-floor mezzanine free of charge
as community space.
All involved deemed the sabbatical a
success that, if the funding can be secured,
is likely to be repeated next fall. Until then,
Hotze has travel plans of her own.
“I’ve already traveled a bunch, but want
to do more,” she said. “Three of my four
kids live way out of town. In September,
I rented a car and went to Montana by
myself for two weeks and just explored all
around without any plans. There’s so much
out there and I love experiencing everything
in life. I had always been that way,
but my studies in Denmark really brought
that back out in me. I love travel, cultures,
languages and exploring the world because
it really wets my whistle!”
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