Elissa Rios-Reyes, Staff Reporter
Students usually know Mrs. Barker as “locker room lady”, but she contributes in ways that students and staff hardly ever hear about.
Our unsung hero has consistently worked on improving our campus for 11 years, and she started off as an Instructional Assistant.
Then, she moved to the locker room. She is most known for the way she aids our P.E department, but less is known of her Save Our Students program and her other unrecognized contributions.
She is a helping hand to those who are in need of food, physical, and emotional assistance. Mrs. Barker’s aspiration for the often overlooked program is to equally ensure those who participate know, believe, and recognize that they are not alone.
So what exactly is S.O.S.’s purpose? Her intention is to confidentially “help students and families in need by giving a backpack full of food every week”, and it is refilled every Friday.
In addition, those who are helped are our campus’s teenagers. Some are currently living in cars, sleeping in grandparents living rooms, or are students who just do not know where they are going to obtain their next meals.
Other donors, like Mr. Wilborn, are people that cater and guarantee humane services to these kids. Mrs. Barker makes it clear that teachers who are aware of this program are “so quick to lend a helping hand” if they know she is lacking supplies.
If she sent out an email that she is in need of peanut butter, “there would be all kinds of peanut butter delivered by teachers,” and most times she would not even know where it came from.
Along with S.O.S., she and other contributors organize the Winter Wonderland; an annual event that attracts about 200 foster youth district wide. They essentially have a night where they can escape their home situations. Mrs. Barker explains that the motive is to “provide them with dinner, ice skating, and pictures so that they can take with them because not a lot of Foster Youth have pictures”.
She wants them to know that “people care, and those participants are V.I.P’s for the night, so they know to keep going with their life, their education, their happiness, and not to get bitter but to get better.”
Mrs. Barker goes above and beyond to help various students who need advice and comfort. She expresses how the girls in the locker room just know her as “the locker room lady”, but she provides some of them with food if they are “having a rough day or an anxiety attack”.
Nevertheless, she considers herself as more of a “locker mom”.
Growing up for her was not easy. She had 3 jobs as a young single mother; therefore, she is able to connect with struggling students.
She communicates how grateful she is to know that her daughter was able to be the first one to graduate college. She believes education is a main priority, but getting consistent meals is just as important.
Our unknown hero and generous people like herself very deserving of acknowledgement for all the hard work she puts into making sure an array of students feel noticed and loved. Thank you Mrs. Barker, you have made quite the impact.
The Cat's Eye 