Suzanne Dubuc Community Connector position funded at refuge
The “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge reported that Maria Santiago holds a position of high respect and trust in the Tice community of Fort Myers. Besides serving as the cultural studies teacher at the elementary school, the Puerto Rican native has developed working and personal relationships with the local churches, daycare and community centers, and surrounding businesses.
For J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge volunteer John MacLennan, Santiago’s energy and love of nature remind him of his late wife, Suzanne Dubuc, who was passionate about teaching children, especially those in disadvantaged communities around the United States.
“Like Suzanne, Maria is an educator and community connector,” Supervisory Refuge Ranger Toni Westland, who leads the Urban Refuge outreach initiative, said. “She always has been there to help ‘Ding’ Darling with Tice Elementary this school year, when we were purchasing school supplies this fall, spending most of November at the school with the WoW mobile classroom, and pitching in on Thanksgiving dinner for 500 families, both students and staff.”
When MacLennan learned about the refuge’s wish to support a part-time community connector position as a liaison between it and Tice, he generously funded Santiago in that role for the school year. As a knowledgeable and active community member, she will facilitate the formation of a community action team to determine future projects the refuge and its Wildlife of Wheels team are planning to help Tice Elementary, a Title I school, in terms of conservation and community needs.
“Suzanne would embrace a person of such high energy and dedication to children as Maria Santiago obviously is,” MacLennan said. “Her life was dedicated to providing the best in education for elementary students.”
Dubuc taught in a rural South Carolina school as segregation was ending, served as principal of a multi-cultural Catholic school in Hawaii, provided teachers and parents in New England with hard-to-find teaching materials, and created an adult-oriented English skills program for Haitian workers in the Fort Myers area.
“We are excited to see Suzanne’s passion for education continue with this important mission of urban outreach and inspiring future conservation stewards,” Birgie Miller, executive director of the DDWS, which supports the program as the refuge’s nonprofit arm, said. “Philanthropy makes the difference in what we can accomplish in this area, and it is an honor to have the memory of Suzanne Dubuc shared in this way.”