By John RittenhouseLuverne Community Education bid farewell to a pair of long-time employees when a pair of summer programs were completed recently.Elaine Harms and Joe Roberts, who provided a combined 50 years of service to LCE, officially retired from their posts.Harms ran morning rec for 24 yearsFor Harms, her decision to retire meant severing a tie with LCE that lasted 24 years.She has served as an instructor in the morning recreation program since the summer of 1982.Harms started teaching high school English in Luverne in 1980, and she started working for LCE two years later."I needed something to do in the summer months more than anything else," Harms stated."Elmer Menage ran the morning recreation program before I did. I took over in 1982, and then I took over the arts and crafts program in 1988."By taking over the morning recreation program, Harms has sacrificed a good share of her summer vacation for more than two decades.The program runs from Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon from early June through late July."We give the kids 45 minutes of unstructured play to start the day, then we break them into grade-level groups for organized play. Then we give them free time to play at the end of the morning," she said of her program."The best thing about it is we have a good mix of high school kids working with the elementary-aged kids. You see the world in a different perspective when you are working with kids of different ages."Harms said working with the kids in the summer months paid off when the same children entered her English classes during the school year."By the time they came into my classroom, they had a good idea as to what to expect from me as a teacher," she said.Now that she’ll have more free time in the summer months, Harms plans to spend it pursing some personal interests.The veteran teacher says she will be able to take more educational classes for herself, some of which conflicted with her summer recreation hours in the past. Other than that, she plans to spend a lot more time on the golf course.Although she’s looking forward to next summer and the freedom it will bring, Harms says it will take some adjusting to escape the mind-set of being an LCE instructor."When I go places, I still find myself looking at different games and craft supplies. Then I say to myself, ‘I don’t have to do this any more.’"When asked what she’ll miss, she said, "What I’m going to miss the most is the enthusiasm of the kids. When they come in the morning, they all have something important to tell you. Whether it was about a new baby brother or sister being born or about where they are going on vacation. They always had something to share with me."Roberts had great runJoe Roberts couldn’t remember how long he worked for the LCE as the instructor of the major league and minor league youth baseball programs.His best guess was that he started in 1980, which then LCE director Gregg Gropel estimated as well."I really don’t remember when I started," Roberts offered."I was the head baseball coach here from 1964-1972, and I coached the American Legion and VFW teams for a while after that."What Roberts does recall is that some of the men who are coaching the little league teams now used to play in his leagues in the past.That, he says, is a priceless commodity to have. "That’s one thing I really like about our program," he said."I really like having the fathers come down here to work with the kids. They do a really good job, and I hear all kinds of nice, positive things about that."Roberts takes pride in building what can be described as an all-inclusive program.With the help of the coaches, Luverne’s youth baseball program is designed to get players of all ability levels involved."I didn’t want the program to be for the good players only," he said. "I wanted the program to be for all of the kids who enjoy playing baseball."Roberts, who retired from a 40-year stint as a math and algebra teacher in the Luverne school system in 2002, has already been blessed with a legacy.Since 1965, he devoted a lot of time and hard work into developing today’s top-notch, two-field complex located on the northeast side of town.For his efforts, the complex was named Joe Roberts Fields, which is something he takes immense pride in.All good things must end, and Roberts decided this would be his last summer as program instructor of the youth baseball leagues."The heat is starting to bother me more than it used to," he admitted. "When it’s 99 (degrees) on the thermometer, that means it’s 110 on the agro-lime, and that’s getting a little harder for me to deal with.""I had a great run," he continued. "I’ve really had a lot of fun working with the kids. It really has been fun for me."With the exception of hot and humid days, Roberts said he’ll miss a lot things about his work with the program.Topping the list will be no longer sharing in the joy after a child has turned in an unexpected triumph on the field."There’s one thing that tickled me the most. There’s always that one little guy who struggles early in the season. Then, somewhere down the line, the same kid will step up and make a nice play in the field or come up with a key hit," he said. "That’s when you see that big grin that runs from ear to ear. To see that feeling of happiness in that kid’s face, to me that’s everything."
