In addition to being a Community Assistant and helping out in whatever ways are needed, I have the pleasure of coordinating the Mentor Program for newly-appointed and young (no, that's not necessarily in age) supervisors. It's a wonderful program in which you can choose to be are paired with a supervisor who has been around for a while and loves to share knowledge with others.

For more information or to be paired with a mentor, please leave a message on my message board or email me at

I grew up in the country in Southern Indiana, and I'm a true country gal. I was in 4-H, an amazing organization, from the age of 10 until I graduated from high school. Though I did Foods and Clothing projects every year, the ones I excelled in were Forestry and Wildlife. My dad made a deal with us, his four children, that we would go to the State Fair if we got a project that earned Champion and went to the State Fair. Sure enough, almost every year one of us would get a project that earned us a trip to the fair. Most years, that project was Forestry. We'd always stop at the White Castle for 5 cent hamburgers on the way home. Imagine that! Nickel hamburgers!

After high school, I attended Indiana University for a couple of years. Ten years later, I went back to IUPUI at Indianapolis and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education. I've used the degree twice. The first time was when I was a lead teacher for Head Start. I loved that job, or at least working with those wonderful children. People just don't realize how very valuable kids are anymore. Now, I'm an online teacher for Educate Online.

Some of my hobbies are organic gardening, growing plants from seeds and selling them at markets, fishing, attending weekend events as a vendor, and getting great bargains at yard sales. Online, I enjoy ebaying, posting to certain forums, and reading alternatives to what mainline news sources are telling us.