Community advocate Penny Dagley chosen as 2009 Gurnee Days Honoree

Penny Dagley is Gurnee Days honoree.

Penny Dagley doesn’t understand all the fuss. She’s just doing her job, she says. But she’s done that job remarkably well for nearly four decades, and now she has been named the 2009 Gurnee Days Honoree and Parade Marshall of the annual Gurnee Days parade. Dagley will be the guest of honor at the testimonial dinner Aug.13, which will kick off the festivities continuing through Aug. 16.

Dagley, who retires this year as Assistant Superintendent for Support Services at Woodland School District 50, has spent 37 years of her life in the education field. She has worked with youngsters who have speech and hearing defects as well as with teachers who work with special needs children.

But she has gone way beyond the classroom to serve youth, families and the community, working with the Gurnee Police and Fire Department to coordinate safety initiatives and serving on the Mayor’s Diversity Council, for example. Dagley has also been involved for more than 10 years with Healthy Communities Healthy Youth, a consortium of local organizations working together to improve the lives of youngsters. She also serves as secretary for the Gurnee Breakfast Exchange Club.
 

“Penny may reside in Waukegan but she…lives and breathes for the community of Gurnee,” said Breakfast Exchange Club of Gurnee President Roberta Pfeiffer.

Talking to Dagley, it’s easy to believe that no matter where she lived, she would be involved in helping the community and its residents. She was raised to live that way, she said. Her mother worked with children with learning disabilities.

“Mom raised us to believe that everybody has value and everybody can participate,” said Dagley.

“I like helping people. It’s important we give an opportunity to others to do their best, and special needs kids can have a difficult time."
 

Healthy Communities Healthy Youth gives youngsters the chance to do their best, she said. “We have representatives from the township, schools, police, park district, all looking at the needs of our community. And it’s not always about money. It’s also about resources.”
 

For example, a pastor from Joy Lutheran Church in Gurnee had several hundred student backpacks with supplies that his congregation wanted to donate to area families.
 

Dagley said, “It’s a difficult economic time now. There are families in the area who have lost their jobs, or are losing their homes, and they need services they’ve never had to access before.”
 

So, instead of just handing out the backpacks, Dagley helped coordinate a Resource Fair to be held from 4 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 18 in the dance hall at Viking Park in Gurnee for Woodland and District 56 residents.

“We will have representatives from various groups-- the YWCA, park center, local food pantries,” she said.
 

Dagley also helped found the business education partnership program for students of Woodland School and District 56. “We wanted to work with students whose family members hadn’t attended college and give them a taste of college. We select 50 to 60 students from Woodland and 40 from District 56 and bus them out to College of Lake County and other schools and universities for four days in February and March so they can get an idea of what they want to explore and what goal they might have after high school.”
 

Dagley also works with the Breakfast Exchange Club, which raises funds for organizations that help youngsters needing support systems outside the home. “We have to remember that before kids can come to school ready to learn, they have to be emotionally and socially ready,” she said.
 

Dagley said while she cannot offer statistics on how these programs help families, she knows in her heart that they do.
 

“You see the differences on a daily basis. I’ve worked with kids and celebrate when one day they make eye contact with me or one day when they can walk on their own.”
 

Joy Swoboda, Woodland District 50 superintendent, said Dagley’s ability to create change stems from her abiding and unconditional love of children. “You can see how much she loves children just by watching her,” said Svoboda.
 

Dagley, who is married to Myron Dagley, Director of Prairie Crossing Charter School, has two sons, Matthew and Christopher and a stepson, Michael.

“She is the most loving woman I have ever encountered, so easy to talk with and engage in life-altering conversation,” said son, Matthew. “She loves children, not only her own, and pours her love and talent into anything that helps someone else. There are countless offspring in Gurnee who owe [Penny] for the time, energy, blood, sweat and tears she has poured into their success and education. Things would be different without her.”
 

By Sheryl DeVore
Triblocal.com Reporter