An interview by Chris Bagdons
What do you do for Mini?
One of my most important functions is to laugh at all the funny things the Mini-School kids and staff say and do. I figure this is the most I’ve laughed and loved my job since I left this job 10 years ago. I’m the office manager for the Mini-School teachers, kids, and their parents. Doug says I’m the glue that holds it all together, which means I try to keep people in communication with each other. I do the standard office-type things like paperwork, attendance, scheduling meetings (what I call the boring stuff), but the best part of the job is being with the teachers and students. In addition to the office work and coordination of both part-time and full-time Mini staff members, I’m probably the main Mini-School contact with parents and the liaison between the Mini-School staff and the big school administration and counselors. I get to go on trips with other staff and kids, like the Mark Warren trip on the St. Croix and Women’s Issues canoe trip. I’m a big sister to some kids and a mom to others. I run the Insights group. I think my most important job here is being another staff person who cares a lot about the Mini-School kids.
Why did you leave the program 10 years ago? What have you been doing for the past 10 years?
I got laid off from Mini-School due to the school district budget cuts of 1982. I went to work at the Bridge for Runaway Youth as an intern counselor, was a family therapist for a year, came back to the school district as a secretary at the Administration Building, and spent the last three years as administrative assistant to the president of McGlynn Bakeries’ frozen division, which was sold last spring to Grand Met/Pillsbury. I’ve done my time in corporate America, and I’m glad to be back where I can feel more real, like the Velveteen Rabbit.
If you could change one thing in Mini, what would it be?
More money for more resources for more kids. We would have a fleet of big vans (limos for town travel
and jets for foreign travel) to take kids on wilderness trips, lots of money for educational materials like science labs and supplies and camping equipment, bicycles, kayaks, rafts, video cameras, and more scholarship money so more kids could go on adventure trips. And speaking as an advocate for kids, there needs to be a telephone and personal computer for every student in Mini. I would also like to be able to bring my dog, Oliver, to work. He thrives on the energy of the kids, too.
Do you have any major goals in life? If so, what?
To be rafting a river, growing a garden, playing with my friends, family, and other animals, working at a job that is meaningful to me, being very healthy, active, and happy until I drop dead painlessly while watching the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I would wish the same for everyone on the planet, even Chris Bagdons.
Can you tell us about your great attraction to high-powered firearms and sharp metallic objects?
I use them only in my kitchen now.