By Erin Albanese
Every weekday at about 1:30 p.m., Sheila Gurd arrives at West Godwin Elementary School to deliver hundreds of sack suppers from Kids’ Food Basket to classrooms, making sure no kindergartner through fourth-grader will go hungry at night.
By the time she arrives, Gurd’s likely already been volunteering at the Godwin Middle School, helping with fundraisers or Popcorn Day. At West Godwin, she recently popped 200 bags of popcorn for Family Night.
Gurd, whose children are second-grader Camblouw and eighth-grader Aidan, is the “go to” parent volunteer at West Godwin, which currently lacks a Parent Teacher Organization, said secretary Kristi Bast. At the middle school, Gurd is on the PTO.
A humble person who said she doesn’t ever want a title, Gurd just likes to help out.
“I love seeing the kids’ faces every day. I love to help and deliver the Kids’ Food Basket food,” she said. “I’ve been here from Day One, very involved. I want to show other parents I want to be involved. I like to do it.”
She also likes to be present in her children’s school day. “Knowing that they know I’m in the building, if they have the problem, I’m right there to assist them.”
Gurd, a Wyoming native who graduated from Wyoming Rogers High School (now Wyoming High School) in 2000, is also a gold medalist in the pentathlon for Special Olympics Michigan.
Bast said Gurd is filling a big need at the school, which has a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students.
“(Without Sheila) we would not be able to get by, honestly,” Bast said. “We don’t have enough staff members. There’s not extra money or extra people. She’s been very good about coming in and being a volunteer with us.”
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