We shared a bagel with Milwaukee mensch Faye Gilbert — super mom and committed reading tutor.
Faye Gilbert may have three teenagers of her own, but through her volunteering, she plays a motherly role to many more.
Twice a week, Gilbert works as a literacy tutor with two pairs of third graders at the Clara Barton School, a Milwaukee Public Schools’ elementary school at 5700 W. Green Bay Rd.
When she first started volunteering at Barton about five years ago, she went once a week and worked with one child, “but there was such a need that I agreed to do more. Then there were two children, then there were three children — now there are four children,” she said over a bagel last week.
And though the work is time consuming, Gilbert is devoted to it because she knows how important reading is. “I almost hesitated to do this but I decided to give it a try because I knew I had something to give.”
She first learned about this volunteer opportunity from an ad for the Milwaukee Jewish Coalition for Literacy, a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, that she read in The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle announcing a meeting for interested volunteers. She went to the training session and has been involved since.
Early on in her tutoring, Gilbert worked with a seven-year-old girl with whom she developed such a close relationship that she got permission to invite her home to meet the Gilbert-Krasnow family. She also took the girl, whose clothes were usually purchased at the Seven Mile Fair, to a mall for the first time. “The child was amazed,” Gilbert said.
“[These children] will ask their teacher when you are coming and will run up to you and throw their arms around you. I really can’t tell you how heartwarming it is,” said Gilbert, smiling.
Gilbert, who said she grew up in a middle class family and attended Milwaukee’s 65th Street School, also thinks her own children benefit from the perspective her work gives them.
One Christmas the girl she befriended “was all excited when she got a new pair of shoes.” When Gilbert’s children heard about this, she thinks it helped them gain some perspective that is difficult to find in the culture that surrounds them. “We often talk about what is really important,” she said.
Gilbert’s eldest son, Ethan Krasnow, worked at the Barton School in a summer program before it lost its funding. Now a senior at Homestead High School, he has just completed the application process to become a big brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America organization, the oldest youth mentoring program in the U.S., according to their Web site. As a big brother Ethan will be matched with a child whom he will befriend and mentor.
And apparently the volunteering spirit runs in Gilbert’s family. She credits her mother for serving as an example to her as a volunteer. “My mother volunteered a lot. When we were growing up — when we were toddlers — she took in foster children,” she said. She was also a Girl Scout leader, and president of the local chapter of Women’s American ORT among other things.
Gilbert’s middle son, Robb Krasnow, 16, and daughter Dana Krasnow, 15, have volunteered their time working with the animals at the Ozaukee Humane Society. And Dana recently said to her mom, “I’m probably going to be just like you. I’m probably going to be a writer [Gilbert writes children’s stories and poems] and a volunteer.”
Gilbert’s work at the Barton School also gives her the chance to expose the students, most of whom are African American, to Jews and Judaism. “At Christmas they’ll talk about the holiday and they’ll ask about what I’m doing and it gives me a chance to tell them about Judaism and what I believe,” she said.
In so many ways, the students are like any children, she said. “Favorite books of my kids have become favorite books of these kids.” Sometimes, when working with two children together, they argue or compete and “there are times when I have to use my motherly instincts,” said Gilbert.
But in the end, it’s pretty simple for this super-mom: “I offer them my support and my friendship.”
Gilbert enjoyed a plain bagel with plain cream cheese and apple juice at Panera Bread on Mequon Rd.
By Andrea Waxman
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