Virginia Walter has always had kids at heart.
Even today, at age 90, the retired Clarkston schools teacher is still actively involved in the lives of youngsters through the Clarkston Area Youth Assistance (CAYA).
Recently, the organization recognized Walter for her 30 years of service.
“I was a bit overwhelmed. It was really just doing my thing, something I enjoy doing, and the years just count up I guess. You have that many before you really think about it.”
Walter was honored at the CAYA annual luncheon Monday, Oct. 20, and not desiring the attention for herself, hoped audience members that day were informed well regarding the organization.
“I hope there will be people more aware of Youth Assistance and what it does, than they were before. It’s been going on for years in the community, but I would say almost every year I find someone who will say, ‘Well, what is it?’”
Walter is happy to tell anyone of the work the CAYA – whose motto is “Delinquency Prevention Through Community Involvement” — accomplishes.
“We always send youngsters to camp and that’s an enriching experience for them,” Walter said, adding just this past year the organization sent 69 kids to a week-long camp, and between 10 and 20 to a day camp. “I remember one year I rode up on the bus with one little girl who cried most of the way up because she didn’t want to leave her mother and cried most of the way back because she didn’t want to leave the camp.”
“Youngsters who go through the Youth Assistance program like that almost never, it’s a very, very few, that ever show up in Juvenile Court,” Walter said, which was the intention of the county-wide organization when it was founded in 1961 by a judge.
Throughout her service, Walter has held every office except treasurer and is currently membership chairman. Also each year, Walter solicits businesses for monetary or door prize contributions for the CAYA’s golf outing, their largest fundraiser.
“There are always a number of organizations that are putting on golf outings to raise money. In order to compete, having good door prizes is helpful,” she laughed.
Walter said the CAYA also sends students to a variety of special events, has an anti-shoplifting program in the schools, and awards those who have participated in community service.
“I feel its an organization that does good things. It is a force that contributes within the community. My strong feeling of it is if you’ve saved one youngster you’re a success. You only need to save one.”
She’s so drawn to helping “youngsters,” because the “Children of our community, the children of our country, the children of our world, are our future. If in any way you can contribute to their being contributing members of society in the future, you’re helping out.”
Aside from the CAYA, Walter has also contributed to the youth with 15 years of teaching English and history in the Clarkston school district.
“There are numbers, who are not youngsters anymore, in the village that I’ve taught,” she admits.
One in particular, Christie Kojima, owner of The Chocolate Moose, said Walter has had a large impact on her life.
The Clarkston High School graduate had Walter as a teacher in sixth grade in 1965.
“She was probably the most influential teacher. Even though as a sixth grader, she was the one I liked the least,” Kojima said. “My mom always told me this would happen — that the teacher I found most challenging, I’d appreciate the most.”
School normally came easy for Kojima. “I never had to open a book. I got straight A’s.”
But when she got her first report card, with Walter as her teacher, she had all A’s but a B in effort.
“With all the courage I could muster as a sixth grader I approached Mrs. Walter. I said, ‘How is this possible? I don’t think I could have given it any more effort.’”
Walter told Kojima she hadn’t tried hard enough. She wasn’t being challenged like some of the other students, who worked hard for their B’s and C’s.
“What can I try to do?” Kojima asked, who was instructed by Walter to earn extra credit by reading additional books.
“It’s one of life’s lessons: try harder. Try hard to find a solution to a situation. I’m 50 and I still think about that,” Kojima said, adding she learned more from Walter than from her calculus teacher, for example. “She taught lessons that applied to life. She has a special place in my heart, though she probably doesn’t know that.”
Walter said if she reads or hears anything about her students, it makes her happy.
“It pleases you when you see any youngster you’ve had any part in teaching making a contribution to society. It makes you feel good.”
Walter and husband Ronald, who passed away in 1973, have been staples in Clarkston.
Ronald’s family, on both sides, were long standing members of the community, owning The Walter Building at 5 S. Main and The Addis Building at 2 S. Main. Ronald also helped turn over the once privately-owned Lakeview Cemetery on White Lake to Independence Township ownership, as well as assisted in including the “country schools” like Andersonville Elementary, on the outskirts of the district, into Clarkston schools.
Virginia has been a member of the Clarkston Farm and Garden Club for 50 years, and has been active at Clarkston United Methodist Church.
Ronald and Virginia were both active in the Rotary.
They have three children, Ron, an attorney with the Milwaukee Bucks; Carol, registered nurse at St. Joseph Hospital; and Mark, a high school teacher in Wisconsin. They also have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren