Manatee County School Board to honor outstanding volunteers

BRADENTON -- For 11 years, Marty Petrilla has been a constant fixture inside the Sea Breeze Elementary School Library, checking books in and out, restocking shelves and bringing a comforting presence to the youngest learners.

"She always helps me find my books," said Jayce Barber, 9, and fourth-grader at Sea Breeze.

Petrilla, a 77-year-old Bradenton resident; Ryan Blakemore, a 15-year-old sophomore at Lakewood Ranch High School; and Andrew Wilford, a 42-year-old Lakewood Ranch resident and parent of a Nolan Middle School student, will be honored Tuesday by the Manatee County School District and School Board as the year's outstanding volunteers.

Two dozen volunteers were nominated in three categories: senior, adult and student. The nominees were whittled down to Petrilla, Wilford and Ryan.

Marty Petrilla

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Petrilla worked quietly behind the desk in the library, scanning student IDs and checking books in and out.

Students are allowed to check out two books at a time. One little boy approached Petrilla with two books on animals, but his card revealed he still had two books out.

"I'll print you a notice to bring back to your classroom, so you remember," Petrilla told the boy.

She then set the books aside for the boy for the next time he came back.

Petrilla moved to Bradenton with her family in 1971. She worked as executive assistant to the chief executive officer at Manatee Memorial Hospital. Eventually, she retired, but it wasn't long before a neighbor told her the librarian at Sea Breeze was looking for a new helper.

Eleven years later, at age 77, Petrilla spends three full days a week at the school.

"I'm here until the last bell rings," she joked.

Petrilla lives just down the street from Sea Breeze in the Country Village condos so she's able to walk to and from school. Her main duties are checking books for students and helping them find reading material. Petrilla said she's always had unlimited energy and working with students helps keep her active.

"I love the kids," she said.

A third-grade student once asked her if she did all this work in the school for free?

She told him yes.

He told her she needed to get a life.

"Some of them say the funniest things," Petrilla said.

Ryan Blakemore

After watching his mother, Lisa Blakemore, work with special needs students at Witt Elementary School, Ryan decided to get involved. He's done a variety of volunteer work, including tutoring students, helping teachers with projects and attending the special needs prom at Woodland Baptist Church. Ryan and his sister help special needs students, Lisa Blakemore said.

"They took to it on their own," she said.

Ryan said he particularly likes to work with special needs students.

"I have the patience to help them and I like to help them," he said.

Like most volunteers, Ryan said he earns satisfaction from his work.

"I was happy. I wasn't doing it for the recognition," he said.

On Saturday, Ryan worked the school's annual Spring Fling, helping teachers set up booths and making sure the event went smoothly.

Ryan, who plays third base for the junior varsity baseball team, has had to limit his volunteer time as spring baseball practice ramped up.

Ryan is looking to combine his two passions, sports and helping others, into some type of career, he said.

Andrew Wilford

By the time students in middle school now grow into adults, coding and programming will be considered basic, routine skills, according to Wilford, a 42-year-old father of four who works remotely for a company in California.

Wilford and his wife, who also works from home, home-schooled their children for a period of time. The two oldest children, one in seventh grade and one in fifth, began attending public schools about a year and a half ago so Wilford began volunteering.

Wilford runs a morning coding class twice a week at Nolan Middle School, but he prefers to call it a "club." He approached Carrie Rainwater, student support specialist at Nolan, with the idea last year. He continued the program during the summer and started it back up again this year.

"He's just phenomenal," she said. "The kids love it."

On Thursday, Wilford let his 12-year-old daughter, Madigan Wilford, lead students in creating a game using a free coding program called Scratch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wilford wandered through the group, providing help.

Matthew Couture, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, was having trouble connecting his personal laptop to the school's Internet. He was able to access the Internet, but not MIT's site. Wilford sat with him as Matthew took notes in a Microsoft Word document.

"I'll send you a reminder email later," Wilford told him. "You can download a version so you can access it online."

Wilford said he was surprised to find out he was being honored by the school district, saying the culture at Nolan is a team effort with parents and teachers all supporting students pursuing technology and science fields.

"I feel like we're all being honored," he said. "This is a really big team."

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published March 9, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County School Board to honor outstanding volunteers."