Volunteer finds time for school

If anyone can "sell" the Capital District, it must be Gina Mintzer.

Every weekday finds her speeding through a rabbit warren of desks at the Albany County Convention and Visitors Bureau, where she is a sales director. With a telephone headset as part of her attire, she multi-tasks as she persuades callers to hold conventions and events in the Albany area.

Mrs. Mintzer brings the same energy to her volunteer work on behalf of Catholic education. Recently, she was named a "woman of excellence" by the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, and she credits her success in part to her own Catholic schooling.

Faith and values

"My Catholic faith and values play a huge role in this recognition, my work ethic and giving back to the community," Mrs. Mintzer told The Evangelist.

Today, she is a parishioner of St. Mary's Church in Amsterdam, where she lives with her husband, Frank, and son Morgan, who's a sixth-grader at St. Mary's Institute. But she's a native of south Florida, raised with eight siblings in West Palm Beach. All of them attended Catholic school.

Volunteering "is part of the way I was raised," she noted. "Part of our duty [is] to give back."

Helping out

Mrs. Mintzer keeps a busy schedule of volunteer work. She's on the communications committee for St. Mary's Institute, helping to boost donations and enrollment.

In addition, she helps with monthly fundraisers that benefit a youth group.

She also pitched in to create a directory of students -- "because I need it," she laughed, explaining that it's a great resource in planning birthday parties and keeping up on who's in her son's class each year.

Making time

Many parents complain that, in families with two working parents, it's difficult to find time for school volunteering. Mrs. Mintzer doesn't accept that excuse.

As a full-time employee, she said, "I can't be the homeroom mom, but whatever Sister Elizabeth [Costanzo, principal] needs, she'll call me."

Besides, she added, "I make time. I know when the book fair is; I schedule that morning to be off. [At the fair,] I get to talk to the librarian, other classes, parents I don't see normally. Even if it's something like saying to a student, 'Oh, that was my son's favorite book,' or, 'That's a good choice; your parents are going to be so proud,' you can't put a price on that."

She especially likes to meet young SMI students who say to her, "You're Morgan's mom? We love him!"

Parent to parent

Mrs. Mintzer finds such closeness particular to Catholic schools. She believes in "tapping the resources of another parent" when needed, asking to trade off picking up the children after an event or keeping up on what's going on with the class.

"I don't know if I'd get that same camaraderie in a public school," she mused. "I know if something's up with my son, I'll hear about it immediately. I feel very connected."

Recently, she helped a group of SMI sixth- through eighth-graders to "adopt" two needy families for Christmas through Catholic Charities. The students immediately caught on to the idea of budgeting their money to be able to buy more gifts on the families' lists.

Mrs. Mintzer was glad that Morgan learned about such things through her volunteer efforts. She said she wants him to see what she's doing "so he'll do the same thing when he's older."

(The half-dozen members of the SMI communications committee, including Mrs. Mintzer, have helped the school to update its brochure and its open-house format, and to begin a quarterly newsletter. Now, she said, they're seeing "the fruits of our labors": a push for more donations to the school and "the pride factor of the kids who go there." Mrs. Mintzer pointed out that another local personage on the Chamber of Commerce's list of "women of excellence" was Sister Constance Casey, SNJM, president of the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany.)

(1/25/07) [[In-content Ad]]