Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2009 / Volunteer calls it a 'privilege' to help out at school
Volunteer calls it a 'privilege' to help out at school
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 21, 2009
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Patricia Hammer, a volunteer tutor, talks with students at St. Raphael Elementary School, Garden City. |
Detroit- Patricia Hammer has been volunteering at St. Raphael Elementary School in Garden City for 36 years, and will be returning to the school for her 37th.
Teachers who have worked with her express their appreciation for Hammer's assistance, but to hear Hammer tell it, she's the one who is grateful.
"It has been a privilege for me to be able to tutor over there," she says, adding, "It has certainly made my life much nicer and given me a quality of life I don't know if I would have had otherwise."
Since 1973, Hammer has helped St. Raphael children with their math. She used to help with reading, too, but in recent years has focused on fourth-graders who need a little help in getting the hang of their arithmetic lessons.
For about 20 of those years she worked every Tuesday with Pam Swiderek, who taught math at the school through the 2008-09 school year.
"She's just an angel, she's such a sweetheart. I always told her, 'I want to be like you when I grow up,'" Swiderek says.
Kathy Hermann, another teacher at the school who has worked with Hammer, says, "She's a wonderful woman; she's very positive and uplifts everyone with whom she comes into contact. Whenever I'd ask her how she was, she'd reply, 'Pushing perfect - just like you.'"
Hammer works one-on-one with the children who are struggling with math, and has, says Hermann, the gift of being able to "figure out what is wrong and how to fix it."
She says she looks forward to working again with Hammer in the 2009-10 school year.
The teachers' high praise for Hammer is matched by her high opinion of them. "It's a wonderful school, and probably has the best teachers in the whole world. The teachers are so giving and so caring for the children," she says, noting that all eight of her own children went through St. Raphael.
Part of her enthusiasm for her parish school stems from her appreciation of her own Catholic education - having gone to St. Augustine in Kalamazoo for grade school and high school, and then to nearby Nazareth College, which was run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, before earning her master's degree from the University of Michigan.
The retired social worker and widow of longtime Garden City 21st District Court Judge Richard Hammer Sr. (who died in 1995) won't say how old she is, only, "I've been 39 more than once."
Besides, she says she doesn't like to focus on her age in years, "because I'm surprising myself every day."
One of her four sons, Richard Hammer Jr. - a judge of the 21st District Court like his late father - says his mother has always "been supportive of Catholic education, and thought the school in our parish is a real jewel."
"She understands what it's done for the community and for generations of kids, and wants to make sure it's there for the next generation," he continues.
Judge Hammer says the school was certainly a good place for him and his siblings: "It gave us a good opportunity. It gave a lot of people opportunities they might not have had otherwise.
His wife, who is also named Patricia, teaches at St. Raphael, but says any confusion that might ensue from having the same name is reduced by the kids referring to her mother-in-law as "Mrs. Hammer Sr." and by them working in separate buildings.
Patricia Hammer (whom the kids just call Mrs. Hammer) teaches third grade.
"She's wonderful," she says of her mother-in law. "She gets the children I've already had, but I hear back from them, and they just love her."
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