Hi,
my name is Cleo. I am one of Patty’s four cats. I live in Patty, Walter and
Tommy’s house with my two brothers Aries and Pepper and my little sister,
Honey.
Patty
adopted me as a kitten for her son Tommy in February of 2006. I was here the
entire time Patty’s son Tommy went to preschool at the YMCA and I saw how
excited Patty was when she was hired as a teacher in the preschool herself. I
get to see and hear about everything that goes in the lives of my family, both
human and feline.
As
a student in the preschool, Tommy really enjoyed the swim lessons and achieved
a fitness foundation that enabled him to join the Y swim team a couple of years
later. In addition to her other duties as a teacher, Patty loved giving swim
lessons to the children. Her two favorite duties as a teacher are teaching
Music and Movement and exercise to the children.
When
the Y Preschool moved to larger quarters in 2008, Patty was concerned about the
loss of the swim program. She wasn’t happy that the children would lose this
fitness opportunity and was concerned that the lack of a fitness program would
cause a lower enrollment in the preschool. In the beginning that did happen.
Many people who attended school at the former site weren’t happy about this
change either and stopped sending their younger children there. Although
enrollment has picked up since the move first occurred, Patty has noticed that
the lack of a more structured fitness program for the children has created a
hole in the program that needs to be filled in order to better fill the YMCA
mission of nurturing young bodies, minds, and spirits.
But
Patty is very shy. She has never had the experience of leading or facilitating
change. Although she really wants to be
instrumental at leading change in her school, she is afraid of approaching her
supervisor and the other teachers about it. Some of them can be very
opinionated and are okay with the status quo.
However, there are a couple of newer teachers that Patty can reach. Miss
Amy, who is one of the teachers, coaches cheerleading in her spare time and is
passionate about fitness. So is Miss B., who is an active mom of four boys. I
believe that Patty can overcome her shyness and reservations about her ability
to lead change. She wants this for the children very badly and I have seen her
grow more confident as a teacher and leader of a class over these last three
years.
As
a cat, I see exercise going on in our house all the time. Sometimes when lots
of jumping goes on from exercise videos, it disrupts my sleep. Other times, I
like to walk underneath Patty and Tommy when they are doing sit-ups, it’s fun.
If Patty can
I think the next steps that Patty needs to do to grow as a
change agent is to have faith in her passion for wanting this change and to be
confident about making her plan and her ideas known to the thought leaders in
her school and the organization, if need be.
