FE’ SEVA

Fe Seva is an amazing and dedicated Foster Grandparent volunteer, whose love for children, knowledge and community giving has evolved to a very high level of volunteering.

She currently volunteers five hours a day, five days a week for a total of 25 hours a week volunteering with three different teachers at Tahoe Elementary School in Sacramento, CA, a Title 1 school, and has been doing so for the past six years. Fe opts to also volunteer each summer for six weeks at the same school. At her young age of 81, she remains as enthused about tutoring as she did during her 40 years of teaching in the Philippines during her career. She utilizes many of the same skills she always had and is a great aid to her teachers. Academically, Fe helps the students by providing quick and positive feedback to the children. She helps them to slow down and check for careless mistakes. Her teachers feel that she is very helpful and wonderful to work with. She has helped to bring students together as a community. Emotionally, Fe offers the much-needed knowledge that someone else truly cares about them and their academic progress.

Mrs. Tiffany Westenburger writes, “I eagerly await the beginning of each school year to find out if I am going to be lucky enough to have Fe Seva volunteering in my room, Her deep commitment to the students and myself is made clear by her consistent and thorough job performance. She provides total feedback to the students and myself about their daily assignments. She diligently corrects and puts helpful comments on their reading and math assignments and tests. With Fe’s help I am able to review the students’ progress with them in a much more timely manner. I deeply value and appreciate the amount of effort Fe puts into her work. I do not know how I would make it without her volunteering in my classroom”.

Last year, Fe received the President’s Lifetime Achievement award by volunteering over 4000 hours. Fe wears her pin proudly.

Fe’ is one of 100 Foster Grandparents in Sacramento, California that offer meaningful volunteer opportunities for low-income seniors 60 and over to provide love and support to children with special or exceptional needs. All Foster Grandparents receive an hourly stipend of $2.65 to reimburse any cost while volunteering a minimum of 15 hours a week. Thousands of children have been helped by the Foster Grandparents in the 30 years of the program. Some children are mentally, physically, or emotionally disabled; others are abused, neglected or in the juvenile justice system. Every child is special, but many lack the presence of that special someone who can make all the difference in the world.