Happy to help

COEUR d'ALENE - Charles Farrey thought his days helping out at Bryan Elementary School would be over once his grandson moved on to middle school.

But Farrey, a retired carpenter who lives in Hayden, is still a fixture at Bryan, volunteering several hours each week.

"It's great fun. I get as much or more out of it as the kids," Farrey said.

Farrey and his wife, Judith, volunteered together last week, helping Coeur d'Alene School District nurses perform annual vision screenings for all kindergarten through first-grade students in the district. It's a service gig the couple have been doing for eight years. They were at Winton Elementary Friday where a classroom was set up as a vision exam lab.

A stream of little faces appeared at the door to the room, some bearing a look of trepidation, others apparently excited by the change in the normal school routine.

They were all greeted by "Mr. Charles," who checked their paperwork before gently nudging them to one of the vision screening stations set up in the room.

There, school nurses waited with hand-held eye charts, ready to check for signs a child may have trouble reading things that are close.

More faces appeared at the door.

"Turn around. Go see this lady right here, good man," Farrey said to a little boy.

A little girl, with a look of uncertainty on her face, glanced up at Farrey.

Sometimes a gentle nudge isn't enough, a kind word is required.

"Let's turn your name tag around so we can see who you are. Julia, that's a very pretty name," he said.

The child relaxed and followed Farrey's direction, moving to the front of the room to read eye charts on the wall.

Volunteers used pointers to indicate which shape a child should identify. Farrey's wife, Judith, was one of the pointing volunteers.

"We couldn't do it without them," said Amy Bell, the school nurse at Winton.

Judith, a retired paralegal, also spends time helping out in district schools. She volunteers regularly at the Hayden Kinder Center.

Another stream of little faces appeared at the door at Winton, and moved into the room.

"Come here, buddy. Be sure to hold on to that," Farrey said to a child about to drop his paperwork.

Farrey smiled, "I call myself the herder."

Sometimes, he's more than that. The kids often let him know what's really on their minds, all unsolicited.

"I've had a boy tell me his dad moved out last night, or a girl tell me her mom's getting married," Farrey said. "They just need to spill their guts to somebody."

Farrey said he lets the teachers and counselors know what he has been told, so they can support the child.

The schools are always looking for help, Farrey said. Empty nesters and retirees shouldn't think they aren't needed if they don't have grandchildren in school.

Laura Rumpler, spokeswoman for the Coeur d'Alene School District, said each school has its own procedure for coordinating volunteers. Anyone interested should contact their neighborhood school and let them know they would like to help out, Rumpler said.

Farrey said his volunteering isn't just good for the kids. It's good for him.

He said his wife tells him he's a better person after he has been with "his kids."

"It's great when you see one of the them, and they ask you if you're going to be at their school, and when you tell them you are, they say, "Yes!"