Colleagues continue Pat's passion in her absence

WESTFALL — The Delaware Valley School District Support Staff has embarked on a new project aimed at helping local animal shelters, while honoring the memory of an animal-loving former member of the staff. For the past several years, DV’s Education Support Professionals, consisting of bus/van drivers, bus assistants, cafeteria workers, custodians, instructional assistants, licensed health room nurses, maintenance staff, secretaries, and traffic control officers, have carried out many projects. They are excited about their expanded mission, which is aimed at helping local animal shelters. The newest DV Support Staff project, raising donations for area animal shelters is appropriately named Pat’s Pet Passion. It began in the spring of 2009 and was in memory of Pat Gelderman, an instructional assistant and longtime employee of the district. Mrs. Gelderman, who passed away, had a passion for animals and dedicated almost every spare minute to helping the local animal shelters. Donations were delivered to the shelters on June 12, 2009, which was Delaware Valley’s last day of school.