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Dreda Newman puts away books in the Sealston Elementary library, where she works with children as a media aide.
Sealston Elementary School media aide Dreda Newman helps kindergartners |
By CATHY DYSON
Dreda Newman has been captivated by books since she was old enough to read.
If anyone wrote one about her, it might be titled: "There's Something Endearing About Dreda."
Newman is a media aide at Sealston Elementary School, where she puts materials on shelves, sets up TVs and DVDs for teachers and wipes off books to stop the spread of flu.
What she likes most about the job--which pays about $12,000 a year in King George County--is spending time with students.
Her interactions are nothing short of magical, said Heidi Asbury, a kindergarten teacher.
"While kindergartners pretty much gravitate toward any generous-looking adult, there is always something endearing about Dreda," Asbury wrote in an e-mail. "She'd not only embrace any child that would run up to hug her, but would also take a minute to ask how each was doing. If a kid [said], 'Hey, I got a boo-boo,' she'd respond with, 'Tell me how!'"
AN AVID READER
Newman has been a lover of libraries since she was a child in Dahlgren. She spent so much time in the library on the Navy base, officials gave her a part-time job.
She had four older brothers and read every comic book and magazine they brought home, even Playboy.
"They had nice articles," she said, smirking.
Some of her neighbors taught at the all-black Ralph Bunche High School during segregation. "They told me, if you can never get out of Dahlgren or King George, you can travel through books."
Newman, 55, left her hometown and moved from one side of the country to another. In California, she said she had a job as a computer consultant, making $200,000 a year.
She came back to the East Coast after her daughter, Nicole, was born 13 years ago. She needed a man to help her conceive, but that was all she wanted from a partner.
Six years ago, Newman moved back to the house she grew up in, to live with her mother, Helen, who turns 90 next month. Newman wanted Nicole to know her roots.
"When you moved as much as I did, you know how important family is," she said.
ALWAYS HAS TIME TO HELP
Newman's long hair is braided into what she calls sister locks. She looks a little like Whoopi Goldberg as she walks down the hallways of Sealston, and kids regularly wave to her.
She's fun, but she doesn't put up with nonsense.
In the computer lab with 24 kindergartners, she looked at an alphabet program with one boy and laughed at the picture with the letter, "g."
"Is that normal?" she asked. "Could a gorilla sit up in a tree like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and play the guitar?"
Later, when the kids lined up to leave, one girl stomped her foot and pouted that she never got to be in front of the line. Newman told her to take her place, as the third in line, or she'd send her to the back.
No matter how busy she is, "she seems to always have time to help the students," said Alison Moss, first-grade teacher at Sealston.
Moss had a student a few years ago who struggled with reading. At least three times a week, Newman worked with him, giving him the one-on-one time he needed, Moss said.
People in Dahlgren often see Newman walking to the store, and they'll ask if she can help their child the way they heard she helped another.
Newman has a car, but she walks for exercise. She also rides the FRED bus to school everyday, even though she has to stay almost two hours after the bell rings to catch a ride.
The bus saves money, which she can devote to her daughter's education. She's trying to get Nicole a scholarship to an out-of-state boarding school, so she can pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.
Newman wants Nicole to see her helping others, whether it's kids who need help telling time or senior citizens who need a ride to the grocery store.
"I tell her to pray daily to be a better person today than you were yesterday," Newman said, "and to give more back today than you were able to yesterday."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
In 2004, Dreda Newman was appointed to the board of the Smoot Memorial Library in King George County and met regularly with others to discuss issues such as the facility's expansion. The appointment was a perfect fit for the woman who was so interested in sharing books with kids that she'd take them to the library and teach them how to read, said Elmore Tyler, Tyler is also Newman's cousin. On Nov. 17, he told King George supervisors how disappointed he was that Newman recently wasn't renamed to the library board. Mullen picked someone else for the seat when Newman's appointment expired in December 2008. Another seat from the Dahlgren District became vacant, and Newman took that one. When that position expired in October 2009, Mullen again picked another resident. Newman didn't know about it until she went to a meeting--and saw someone else in her chair. "She's done a good job on the library board," the supervisor told told Tyler last month. "I thought I'd give somebody else a chance, |
