Date: Fri 09-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Middle-Gate-Ratchford

Full Text:

Middle Gate School Says `Thank You, Kathy Ratchford'

Middle Gate School cafeteria volunteer Kathy Ratchford is honored with gifts

and balloons on May Day.

-Bee Photos, Evans

Cafeteria Director Marge Ouellette (center) gives Kathy Ratchford (right) a

present, while school principal Gary Hexom (left) looks on.

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

May Day was a perfect occasion for giving flowers and presents to someone who

is very special to the Middle Gate School community - longtime kitchen helper

Kathy Ratchford.

Ms Ratchford, 28, has spent the past six years as a volunteer dish washer in

the school cafeteria.

"We're good friends... like sisters. And she keeps me out of trouble," said

co-worker Marge Ouellette, the Middle Gate cafeteria director who works

alongside Ms Ratchford behind the school lunch counter.

It was 12:30 pm, Thursday, May 1, and the children had finally finished eating

their pizza. As the two women washed and stacked the trays, they chatted and

joked.

They were waiting for Kathy's father, Robert Ratchford, to arrive. He and

several others would be attending the brief ceremony at the invitation of

Middle Gate School Principal Gary Hexom.

When Mr Hexom first assumed the job as school principal in December, he heard

about Ms Ratchford's loyalty and hard work and immediately decided that her

long service to the school should be recognized.

"I was told she was a volunteer and that just stopped me right there. I

focused on that word, realizing we had to do something," said Mr Hexom.

Guests who came to honor Ms Ratchford included Superintendent of Schools John

Reed, Board of Education Chairman Herb Rosenthal, Pupil Personnel Services

Director Robert Chiappetta and Assistant Superintendent Robert Kuklis.

"It's nice to take a pause for someone who is so special and giving. It's as

simple as that," Dr Reed said.

Several classes of Middle Gate students filed back into the cafeteria and sat

down - this time, not to eat pizza but to honor Kathy.

"Rain or shine," she's here, Mr Hexom told the students.

"Thank you so much. You are a wonderful example to us," said PTA president Pat

Barrett as she gave Ms Ratchford a Middle Gate sweatshirt.

Newtown special education teacher Barbara Gorham presented Ms Ratchford with a

special plaque, and said she remembered having Kathy as a 12-year-old student

in her classroom 16 years ago at Head O' Meadow School.

"It was my first year teaching and I'll never forget Kathy. She used to wear

the most beautiful dresses," Ms Gorham said.

A Family Tradition

Talking with Robert Ratchford after the ceremony for his daughter, it wasn't

difficult to see where Kathy Ratchford learned her volunteering ways.

Mr Ratchford, retired from the New York Fire Department, said he has always

been active in his support of volunteer organizations.

"I'm a professional volunteer myself," he joked.

While Kathy was growing up and attending Newtown schools, he and his wife

worked tirelessly to encourage her, always seeking the right combination of

teachers and classroom situations to gradually further her growth and

independence.

"It's been an educational experience for me from the start," Mr Ratchford

said, adding, "I know her mother is looking down today and feeling very

proud."

Mrs Ratchford died in 1994 after a long battle with cancer.

Kathy's two younger siblings, Judy and Bobby Ratchford, now live away from

Newtown, so Mr Ratchford and his daughter share the family's Taunton Lake Road

home.

"She has her own apartment - two rooms off the kitchen - and she's just gotten

her own TV. She loves to work the remote," Mr Ratchford said.

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Kathy boards a Hart bus to get to her

cafeteria job and, if the weather is snowy or stormy, she goes anyway but

expresses great concern about her co-workers and the Middle Gate students.

"She's my worrier," said Mr Ratchford with affection.