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For former teacher, volunteering is easy as A-B-C

At a recent small church gathering, held in a parking lot, Jean Dooley was asked to say a few words about volunteering. At age 80, and despite the pandemic, her days are filled with essential tasks for a wide range of local nonprofits.

In managing her busy schedule, Dooley told the group, she draws inspiration from her former career as a grade school teacher. "I simply remember the letters of the alphabet," she explained.

The letter, A, for example, stands for the Angel Society, a local philanthropy. She has been a member of its board of directors for 16 years and is currently serving as president.

B is for the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance, where she has been an active member of its board of directors since 2003, when she was named Official Steward of Pico Promenade for her work to help clean up the downtown walkway.

C is for church, as in Fallbrook United Methodist Church, where her two-year term as chairman of its board of trustees was recently extended.

D is for "democracy," which encompasses her involvement in local politics, meetings and various community causes.

E is for the environmental education program for local elementary schools, which she helps coordinate with Jackie Heyneman, chairman of the Save Our Forest committee of the Fallbrook Land Conservancy.

F is for the Fallbrook Food Pantry, where she is a member of its board of directors and was honored as Volunteer of the Year in 2011.

While Dooley's alphabetical list stops there, she might have added the letter G for the "Gem of a Volunteer" award she received in December from the FLC for her "dedicated volunteerism for many years." Not only has she helped plan and lead the SOF environmental education program, but she also continues to volunteer for weekly cleanups of the Pico Promenade area, attends monthly tree maintenance work parties and more.

"She is a joy to have as part of our organization and we are grateful for her service and support," said Karla Standridge, FLC executive director, in an email to the group's members.

The accolades don't stop there. Over the years, Dooley was honored with two awards from the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce: Citizen of the Year, in 2009, and Lifetime Achievement in 2018.

She was also the recipient of the North San Diego Business Chamber's Philanthropy Award in 2012.

In addition to her work with local nonprofits, Jean and her husband, Jim, have hosted several foreign exchange students over the years. They were also volunteers with the "puppy raisers" program of Canine Companions, which is how they eventually adopted their lab/golden retriever mix, Durango. Jim has been known to bring him along on environmental education planting days at FLC preserves, where Durango is often surrounded by adoring fifth-graders.

Dooley became an active volunteer in the Fallbrook community when she officially retired at age 59 after a long career in education. After earning a B.A. in English and Spanish at Millersville State Teacher's College in '62, she began teaching Spanish as a Second Language at Lenape Junior High School in Doylestown, Pennsylvania – the same town where she attended junior and senior high school. In '67, she earned an M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College in Vermont.

She moved to California in 1970, when she was hired to coordinate the bilingual education program for the Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista. Four years later, she married her husband, Jim, and the couple settled in Bonita.

When Jim, a manufacturing engineer, accepted a new position with Borg Warner Mechanical Seals in Temecula, the couple began their search for a new home. They found it in Fallbrook in August 1977, when they bought a house on North Main Street. "It was a fast move," recalled Jean. "I quit my job and in two weeks I had a new house, new job and I found out I was pregnant."

The couple's first son, Jeffrey, was born in '78. Their second, Todd, was born two years later. "We loved the small village of Fallbrook. I would put Jeffrey in his stroller and push him down to Betty Jackson's restaurant where the waitresses would spoil him," Dooley recalled. The young couple also enjoyed watching movies at the Mission Theatre, where there was a convenient "cry room" for young families.

In September 1977, Dooley was hired as a "bilingual resource teacher" at Maie Ellis Elementary School, working with students in the fourth through sixth grades who were struggling with an all English program.

Later, the Fallbrook Elementary School District started a bilingual program, and she was assigned a second grade bilingual class with both English and Spanish speaking students. In 1991, she moved to La Paloma Elementary, where she taught fifth graders until 2000.

Dooley credits Vince Ross for igniting her passion for volunteering, even if at first it was only to help clean up the downtown area. Ross, a longtime Fallbrook businessman, developer and benefactor, suggested that she "pick up trash on Pico Promenade around the same time Jackie (Heyneman) started planting trees," she recalled.

Dooley was soon recruited in 2003 to the newly-formed Fallbrook Beautification Alliance and has been a board member ever since. She has assisted over the years with various habitat restorations, trail cleanups and other projects along the Promenade. Under her direction, cigarette butt and dog waste stations were installed along the path in 2013 and 2014.

In 2001, Dooley was also recruited as a volunteer for the Fallbrook Food Pantry. "They didn't have many bilingual volunteers and they needed me to help interview clients," she said. "I enjoyed doing that for a long time."

She was also instrumental in coordinating the group's first "Crop Walk," a run-walk organized through Church World Services that helped raise funds for the food pantry. In the mid-2000s, Dooley helped spearhead a move to separate from the church-run event, organizing a new fundraiser called "Thanksgiving Walk to Feed the Hungry."

Throughout her busy "retirement," Dooley still finds time to play tennis, a sport she took up in the late '70s. She is a longtime member of the Fallbrook Tennis Club where she is often seen playing doubles on Tuesday mornings. "Tuesday is for tennis," says Dooley, who admits she hasn't been playing as "consistently since COVID-19 began."

It was through tennis that she met Lila Sandschulte, an avid tennis player who was also a member of the Angel Society. She invited Dooley to volunteer at the Angel Shop, a thrift store that raises philanthropic funds for the organization. Dooley subsequently became a member of its board of directors in 2005 and has held several positions on the board over the years. Currently serving as president, she will complete her two-year term in June.

"I have loved being president of the Angel Society for the past two years," Dooley said. "I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish at the Angel Shop and in what we have been able to give back to the community. There were times, due to the COVID-19 virus, when we definitely needed to work harder to come together for the benefit of our mission to the community, and it was not always easy. But we have been able to face all the challenges with a positive attitude and continue to make life better for many in our community."

With the onset of the pandemic, it's been a challenging year for most nonprofits. But Dooley is no stranger to adversity. In 2014, she was diagnosed with multiple myloma, an incurable, but manageable blood cancer. She is receiving treatment and her present condition is stable.

Dooley turned 80 in November and counts her family among her blessings. Both Jeffrey and Todd, now in their 40s, have careers in engineering. The Dooleys also have three grandchildren, Melia, 13, and Ryan, 11, children of Jeffrey and Teala, of Oceanside; and Carmen Elizabeth, 8, daughter of Todd and Ana of Fair Oaks, California.

Dooley also has no plans to retire from her many civic duties, which she views less as an obligation than an "opportunity to expand your life," she said.

For her, volunteerism is a "world view," which she describes as matter of "looking outside of yourself," she said. "It makes you feel better about yourself, which is also good for your health. And you're also making the community better, doing things that will help kids and young people."

"Some people don't know what to do with themselves after they retire," she added. "I do what I want to do, and you can pretty much count on the fact that I'm enjoying it, or I wouldn't be doing it."

 

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