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YMCA teacher honored for years of service
When asked to describe Florence Conklin, people use words like energetic compassionate, kind, hardworking and selfless.
The 85-year-old has been a preschool teacher for the Loudoun YMCA in Leesburg for the past 13 years, and along the way she's inspired many with her spunk and positive attitude.
“If you work with kids, it keeps you young, and it keeps you going," Conklin said. “I like to get down on the floor and play with them.”
For her dedication to teaching and her commitment to the YMCA, Conklin was honored during an awards luncheon March 25.
"You guys have way overdone it. I'm just overwhelmed," she said upon receiving a plaque recognizing her service. “I don't really feel like I deserve all this. I just go do my job every day.”
Wendell Fisher, executive director of the YMCA of Loudoun County, and Laura Kiyota, the organization's program director, felt she did deserve recognition.
“How do you describe her?" Kiyota asked. “How do you write a speech about somebody that in my opinion walks on water?”
Kiyota met Conklin 13 years ago when they both taught preschool for the YMCA.
“Flo and I have taken care of a lot of children together,” she said. “She seems to get younger every year. She just springs up those steps.”
Diana Ryan, who currently teaches the “We Are 2s and 3s” class with Conklin, said she is also impressed with her dedication to the job.
"She's always in every morning before I get there," she said.
Everyone in Conklin's life seems to remark on her ability to get things done and her high level of energy.
Even her grandson, Chris Chamberlin, 19, said his grandmother is tough to keep up with.
In addition to working with the YMCA, Conklin also works daily as a lunch lady at Evergreen Mill Elementary School.
At home, she enjoys gardening and painting, said her daughter, Shari Chamberlin, who lives with her mom in Leesburg.
“She's amazing,” Chamberlin said. “She's got more energy than anyone I know.”
Growing up, she remembers her mother stayed home while her father, Ron Conklin, worked.
After he died, Conklin said, she decided she needed to get out and get a job.
For the first time since she was young, at the age of 73, she got a job -- working as a teacher with the YMCA.
“Somehow it stuck,” she said. “It just worked out well for me. I'm just real blessed.”
Conklin has always loved children. She is now a grandmother to nine and has two great-grandchildren.
She said she feels lucky that she still has her health, and she can see herself working with the preschoolers well into the future.
“God willing, I'll stick with it,” she said.
And the staff members at the YMCA hope she does.
“I'm so honored to know her and to have worked with her all these years,” Kiyota said. “She is an angel on earth.”
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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