Earning a 'high-five'

Each Friday afternoon, Andy Olson's 22 kindergarten students eagerly file into Riverside Elementary School's computer lab.

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Ready to greet them are Baxter neighbors John Cremers and Dennis Lamb, who also are members of the Kiwanis Club of Brainerd.

John Cremers, a Brainerd Kiwanis Club volunteer, helped Riverside Elementary School kindergartner Llisa Rono after she ran into a problem while trying to play a computer matching game Friday at her Brainerd school. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls

For the past three years, the men have volunteered to help the school's youngest students as they learn how to use the computer to play educational games. They've taken on the weekly task as Kiwanis volunteers but both admitted that they'd still be coming to help out even if it wasn't a Kiwanis project because they enjoy it so much. They volunteer for two hours, helping with the kindergarten students in Olson's, Ricky Aulie's and Erica Bordwell's classes. Each class spends a half-hour each Friday afternoon in the computer lab.

Olson, Aulie and Bordwell were all students of Lamb's, which is how the men started to volunteer at Riverside school. Lamb taught education courses at Central Lakes College in Brainerd for the former Southwest State University program, where local students could earn a bachelor's degree in education through Southwest State here. The program is no longer available but Lamb continues to teach through Southwest State's master's in education program at CLC and Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Wadena campus. All three kindergarten teachers had him as an instructor at one time or another, he said.

"I'm a former elementary teacher and I love being around the kids," Lamb said. "This allows me to come into the schools and be around the kids. I enjoy it."

Cremers, now retired since 2006, spent 14 years as vice president of finance at St. Joseph's Medical Center before opening his own medical billing service company, Business Management Service of Brainerd. He said Lamb, who lives across the street from him and is a frequent fishing partner, asked him if he wanted to volunteer at Riverside, too.

Cremers said it's been fun watching how the kindergartners' computer literacy skills have progressed since the beginning of the school year.

"You also can really see which kids use computers at home," said Cremers.

Last Friday the students were engrossed in a "Clifford the Big Red Dog" sound match game. But their small hands went up around the room often when they couldn't figure something out or needed assistance to play again. The lab usually has an assistant who helps the kindergarten teacher, but Olson said even then, having two additional pairs of arms comes in handy with 22 students.

"It's definitely a benefit to have them in here," Olson said of Lamb and Cremers. "A lot of kids know how to use a computer but some don't know how to use a mouse. We learn about sounds, numbers and words (in computer class). This is one of their favorite classes."

"They learn a level of independence very quickly," said Lamb. "And they're not afraid to try. They have fun with it and get excited. It's that excitement when they figure it out. That's the reward."

As Olson's students filed quietly out of the computer lab and through the library, several students gave the men "high fives."

"That's what it's all about," Lamb said with a smile.

"They're just full of life," added Cremers.

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.