Volunteer spotlight: Jillian Bentson

This June, when our 5th graders leave Taylor to attend middle school in the Fall, we not only say goodbye to those students, but also to a class of dedicated parent volunteers. One parent in particular will sorely be missed – Jill Bentson.A parent to three boys – a 7th grader at Dorothy Hamm and twin 5th-grade boys here at Taylor – there are not many volunteer jobs at the school that she hasn’t had her hand in. Among her many roles she has:

• Served on the Taylor PTA Executive Board for four years as the VP of Fundraising and VP of Communications;
• Chaired the after school enrichment program for the past four years;
• Helped with the annual Spring Fair;
• Volunteered as a room parent for six years;
• Helped backstage for band concerts;
• Chaperoned countless classroom field trips;
• Been a classroom helper, coming in to make copies for the teacher every week; and
• Helped coordinate the spirit wear sale this year.

“Jill has selflessly dedicated herself in so many dimensions of volunteer work at Taylor over these years, always with the emphasis on helping those in need,” said Rebecca Villane, last year’s Taylor PTA president. “Taylor and the school community are the benefactors of her efforts, and she leaves a wonderful legacy of what it means to volunteer.”

As a room parent for Ann Heidig’s third grade class during the Covid shutdown, Bentson helped to troubleshoot the use of Teams, Seesaw and other applications for remote learning while students attended class from their homes. “She would get on the phone, and she would look at her son’s iPad and tell me how it was working on his side,” said Heidig. “Whatever I needed, she was there.” But her thoughtfulness went beyond that, recalls Heidig. Bentson even brought Georgetown Cupcakes to the school during teacher appreciation week in 2020.

“She was a rockstar Field Day volunteer, balancing between her boys’ classrooms and making meaningful conversation with teachers”, said Jules Walker, one of the twins’ third grade teachers. “She would surprise the teachers with Starbucks coffee periodically and spoiled us with organizing special end-of-year gifts.”

In addition to managing her boys’ various sports schedules, and all of her volunteer work, Bentson works full-time as a Therapy Awareness Consultant. Some of her greatest memories at Taylor have included face painting at the Spring Fair and watching the kids build gingerbread houses when they were in kindergarten. But her absolute favorite memory from her time at Taylor was watching the Taylor staff basketball game.