Mark Shively started volunteering his painting services in 2002 when his son was playing football for Kempsville High School. Even though his two sons have graduated, Shively continues to volunteer his time to paint the football field’s end zones, 50-yard line, and sidelines with Chiefs artwork. Shively credits a team of parent volunteers - Maury Hill, Brett Rodgers, Tim Smith, Diane Shively, George Theodoris, and Justin Warsaw - for helping to make it all happen. In addition, the volunteers’ handiwork is prominently featured each year in an aerial photo of the senior class forming their graduating year on the field.

Shortly after Robert Carrington moved to Virginia Beach to help care for his mother, he contacted his neighborhood middle school and inquired about how he could assist as a school volunteer. His own children are grown, and he wanted to support other students. That was more than two years ago, and the retired IBM employee continues to volunteer almost daily at Independence Middle School.

Carrington is a volunteer coach with the basketball team, academic tutor, cafeteria monitor, and a mentor to male students through the school’s 100% Success Club for African American Males. Under the direction of guidance director Clint McNair and with assistance from Carrington, Success Club members will be writing personal goals, participating in personal growth activities, conducting on-line discussions with mentors, and learning from African American community and business leaders. Carrington, who was one of three VBCPS Citywide Volunteers of the Year last year, says that it is important to him to volunteer at a school in his neighborhood because he sees those students in his own community. He believes that it is essential for everyone to contribute to their school communities to help ensure that their students are equipped to achieve success in middle school, high school, and beyond.

Photo: IMS staff member Raimundo Anderson (left) enjoys a laugh with Carrington (right) in the school cafeteria. Both men serve as assistant coaches for the school’s boys’ basketball team.

Photo: Nora Firestone

The school division’s Golden Circle program encourages the involvement of volunteers 55 years of age and older who are willing to commit 40 hours of service annually to a Virginia Beach school. Golden Circle volunteers who complete 40 hours of service are rewarded with one free pass to take a community education course at the school division’s Adult Learning Center.

That was music to Marilyn Mitchell’s ears. Marilyn Mitchell is the grandparent of several VBCPS students who was helping fifth-grade ESL students at Pembroke Elementary School last year. She used her Golden Circle pass to take an introductory Spanish class at the Adult Learning Center so that she could better assist the ESL students. Two nights each week she attended class and practiced Spanish, bringing her new skills back to Mrs. Ofeldt’s fifth-grade class. “The students smiled and corrected me, but they appreciated that I was trying to speak their native language,” she recalls. Mitchell continued to work with the students throughout the year and attended their fifth-grade graduation ceremony. Because of her outstanding volunteer service, she was asked to serve as Pembroke Elementary’s PTA Volunteers in Education Coordinator this year to help manage the volunteer service of other parents and community members. When she’s not busy at Pembroke Elementary, she volunteers at Old Donation Center where her grandchildren also attend.