Rotterdam teacher blends two lives

Area men and women fly with the 109th – Karolyn De Vito

This is the first of a two-part series on members of the 109th Airlift Wing based in Scotia. This week The Spotlight focuses on the home lives of two of its members,

George Alston

of Delmar and Bradt Primary teacher

Karolyn De Vito

. Next week we will focus on how they perform their military duties in Greenland.

See Part 2 of

Karolyn De Vito’s story here

Kangerlussuaq, Greenland – Karolyn De Vito knew she wanted to be a teacher as early as the fourth grade growing up in Melrose.

What she didn’t know was she would teach students at both ends of the earth.

De Vito, 34, teaches K-2 physical education at Bradt Primary School in Rotterdam as her full-time job, but she also serves as a master sergeant in the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard. The 109th flies missions around the world with its LC-130 Hercules aircraft, but its primary mission is to support research in the polar regions.

This means that De Vito is usually far away from home a few weeks each year, and sometimes when school is still in session.

`When we go to Greenland, it is usually during the summer so it doesn’t affect school,` she said, `but Antarctica is another story.`

In November 2009, De Vito deployed to Antarctica for 42 days, but decided to take a few friends with her.

`She came in to tell the class she was going away and that she would like to take them with her as Flat Stanleys.` Second grade teacher Laurie Dennis said. `They all wanted to go.`

Flat Stanley is based on a book that ponders the question of where we could go if we were flat. The students make paper look-a-likes and become two-dimensional. Once they are transformed they can travel via mail or fit almost anywhere.

`Karolyn made a journal for each (now flattened) student,` she said. `It was personal for each one of them.`

They made the three-day trip down to Antarctic and toured the mountains, skiways, planes and ice. They went every place De Vito did.

However, it did not always go as planned.

`I decided to take them with me on a mission to the South Pole,` De Vito said. `I taped each student in the class to a plastic sheet, so I could take their picture at the Pole sign . What I didn’t realize is the tape doesn’t stick well in below zero temperatures. Many of them started blowing away across the snow.`

With the help of the ground crew at the South Pole Station, they retrieved each student from the ice.

`I was so scared I was going to lose one of them,` she added. `Could you imagine coming back and saying, ‘Sorry I lost you at the South Pole.’`

When they returned to Bradt, the non-flat students interviewed De Vito.

`They were elated, and the experience made them feel so special,` Dennis said. `It is not often that a child could say their Flat Stanley went to Antarctica.`

This will not be the last time De Vito will blend the life of a soldier and a teacher.

`I am working to set up a pen-pal program with the school in Greenland,` she said. `I met with the teacher this week, and we are working out the logistics.`

The 109th is based in Kangerlussuaq while in Greenland. It is a settlement of about 500 permanent residents on the site of a former U.S. airbase 75 miles from the western coast of Greenland. The mix of cultures helps De Vito’s students experience life outside Schenectady County.

`She is always full of energy,` Mohonasen Athletic Director Joe Scalise said of De Vito. `Kids see her passion and energy. It flows into her teaching.`

De Vito joined the Air National Guard after graduating from Hudson Valley Community College with a degree in applied science. She took the aptitude test to get into the guard with a friend.

`I liked the idea of, as advertised, one weekend a month and two weeks a year.` De Vito said.

After graduation, she left for basic training, completed tech school and flew with the Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron as a medical technician, then enrolled at SUNY Cortland to earn a bachelor’s degree.

`I was a flyer,` De Vito said. `We did flights two weekends a month. Because I did not live locally, I needed to do the weekend trips to other parts of the country to keep my training up.`

Once she graduated from Cortland in December 2001, she found a temporary job as a physical education teacher at Mohonasen, but it took another year to find a full-time slot.

`I liked the people there. We had a young staff and we became friends quickly,` De Vito said. `I love to teach, and the kids really hype me up.`

The day before St. Patrick’s Day in 2003 she received a call at her house in Stillwater: She was being deployed to Iraq.

`It was a really hard day. We only had 48 hours to get ready,` she said. `At that time I had only been married six months and just picked up a new puppy that day. It was hard, but I always knew it could happen.`

She spent four months at Camp Wolfe in Kuwait preparing wounded soldiers for transport to Spain or Germany.

`The first day we were there, the chemical attack sirens kept going off,` De Vito said. `It was scary because we did not know how to get the chemical suits on and when we did, it was about 100 degrees, which was not a good combination. We had so many sirens that day, I wasn’t sure what was going on.`

After that first day, things became more routine, De Vito said. She learned where the shelters were and how to deal with life in a war zone. She returned after four months.

In addition to teaching, she coaches two sports, varsity high school soccer and track and field.

`She knows how to motivate younger students and the same with high school students,` Scalise said. `She adapts to the student she interacts with.`

`I have high expectations for all of them, as I do for myself,` De Vito said. `I want them to be successful.`

If you want to sum up how De Vito approaches her job, Dennis says she takes time to care.

`As a teacher, she is enthusiastic, energetic and goes above and beyond to make the students feel special,` she said. `We have over 700 kids in this school and she knows each of their names. That is a hard thing to do.`

But not maybe not as hard as planning recreation and morale boosters for crews that deal with sub-zero temperatures in a very isolated place.

Next week The Spotlight will look at De Vito’s duties as the first sergeant for the 109th on a recent deployment to Greenland.

Click Below to see the Photo Gallery of Karolyn De Vito.