Breitenfeldt encourages, challenges local school children Volunteer Crystal Breitenfeldt reads with Madeline Forrest (left) and her sister Samantha as part of the Volunteer Center of Brown County's Literacy Connection program (photo by H. Marc Larson). Volunteerism is fun, not work, she says By Brett W. Meach News-Chronicle Crystal Breitenfeldt has an urge to help children. Over the years, Breitenfeldt has aided teachers all over Northeast Wisconsin, from the small town of Holmen to a larger endeavor as a library aide at Pulaski High School. Today she helps the second- and third-graders at Jackson Elementary School with spelling and vocabulary once a week. She also helped kindergarten students three to four days a week on creative projects at their worktables last spring. "(Some of) those kids are absolutely not interested in school," Breitenfeldt said of the many children she sees from broken homes and other sad situations. "But anything they have to do, I just sit by them and encourage them to get it done. "This is fun to me because I've loved school since I was a little kid." Before she came to Green Bay, Breitenfeldt's late husband wanted to retire. She had other ideas. "I didn't want to retire. I needed to do things," she said. As for working with the older kids in Pulaski, Breitenfeldt just didn't see it as work; it was fun for her. "I loved them because I could challenge them," Breitenfeldt said. "They had an awful lot of respect for me and I had a lot for them." In passing the Volunteer Center one day while on her way to the library, she stopped in, and the rest is history. "I went in there, and Anne put me to work at Jackson School," Breitenfeldt said, referring to Anne Charneski, the Volunteer Center's Literary Connection coordinator. "That's what they ask me to do so I'm going to do it. "It's not work to me; it's enjoyment. I would just rather be with people than by myself." And when the children were selling tickets for the Younkers spring fashion show, Breitenfeldt, who admittedly is not poor, but is not rich either, bought a ticket to support the children but declined to go to the event. "I told them I wouldn't spend any money because I just don't have it," Breitenfeldt said. "I am sensible about it." "Givers," a weekly spotlight on the volunteers who make Northeast Wisconsin a special place to live, is a partnership of The Green Bay News-Chronicle and the Volunteer Center of Brown County. The center has more than 3,000 volunteer opportunities available through more than 150 community agencies. To learn more, call the center at 1-800-865-8683 (1-800-VOLUNTEER).