Carol Olson

Two years ago, the principal of Pine Forest Elementary School called Carol Olson to help tutor at-risk students.

Carol Olson's philosophy of life comes from a quote from Audrey Hepburn, "God gave you two hands. One to help yourself and one to help others." Carol started in 1997 by helping one child. One child led to another and another. When summer came, Carol was concerned because she believed that one of the students needed private tutoring. Since the student's family could not provide private tutoring, she tutored the child free of charge.

When the 1998 school year started, Carol was back and ready to continue tutoring. Carol is generous with her time and her resources. She believed that students could benefit from certain computer programs that could help them to learn, so Carol purchased the programs and donated them to the school.

Other schools learned about Pine Forest's volunteer. Carol was asked to train other volunteers so that they would be effective literacy tutors as well. Carol readily accepted this new assignment while continuing to tutor students at Pine Forest. There are now literacy tutors in each of the county's at-risk schools.

This past summer Carol took on another challenge. She trained the Kingwood High School Varsity Football Team to be community volunteers for summer school. These young men became mentors and role models to children who were in need.

Pine Forest's principal describes Carol as a person who does not have an off switch. Once she is on a mission to help a kid, no one can stop her.