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MASSARO: Volunteer finds niche helping kids at Swansea school

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 19, 2008 at 9 p.m.

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Kiasia Jones, from left, shares a laugh with, Berenisse Martinez, teacher Bethany Musser and Natalia Sasso at Swansea Elementary School recently.

Photo by George Kochaniec Jr. / The Rocky

Kiasia Jones, from left, shares a laugh with, Berenisse Martinez, teacher Bethany Musser and Natalia Sasso at Swansea Elementary School recently.

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Bethany Musser was giving a stranger a tour of Cross Community Center in Swansea when a young man was trying to maneuver a cart through a door. Musser ran to the door and opened it.

That's Musser - there to help where there's a need.

Musser, 23, is part of Colorado Vincentian Volunteers, a group of young college graduates who live, pray and worship together and who go into the community to help those who need it most.

Some, like Ryan Martin, work at Samaritan House.

Musser tutors, mostly math and English, at Swansea Elementary School, a former industrial neighborhood split by Interstate 70. She teaches English as a second language at the center. When she's not busy teaching, she does what she's called on to do.

"She's nice," said Connie Prieto, 10, who asked Musser for math help.

When the session started, the students - Prieto, Grisel Lomeli, Berenisse Martinez and Alex Cervantes, all 11 - were reluctant to sit at a desk right in front of a whiteboard.

Alex volunteered that he was having trouble with a math problem.

Musser asked him to read the assignment. He begged off. So Musser asked students what other problems they were having. A few shy, whispery answers came forth.

She worked the four kids through two other problems. Then she asked Alex to read the assignment that was bothering him. He did.

By now, all four were crowding Musser away from the board, chattering and trying to grab the marker to work the figures.

Musser said she wanted a gap year - time off before continuing her education - after graduating last year from Eastern University, a small, private school outside Philadelphia, where she studied theology and Spanish.

"I wanted to see a different part of the country, not only geographically, but also culturally," she said. "I wanted to do something not directly tied to a paycheck. I didn't want to calculate my time in dollars."

At Swansea Elementary, 100 percent of the students qualify for the free breakfast and lunch program.

Musser said words like "poor," "disadvantaged" and "marginal" are mere labels.

"I get to see the faces," she said. "I get to know the people."

Musser said volunteering in her year off was the right thing to do.

"Society is only as strong as its weakest portion," Musser said.

Ryan Martin, 33, has an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He worked six years as a commodities and stock trader.

"I just realized that wasn't what life was about - making money," he said. Working with the needy "certainly feeds my soul."

Colorado Vincentian Volunteers is hosting a benefit concert - From Heartland to Soul - featuring Dakota Blonde and Hazel Miller at 7 p.m., June 2, at the University of Denver's Newman Center for the Performing Arts. Information: 303-758-2866.

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271