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Community Corner

Local Woman Starts Small to Make a Big Difference

Roberta Winters has spent a lifetime studying, teaching, organizing and advocating for those around her.

Roberta Winters has spent a lifetime studying, teaching, organizing and advocating for those around her and the world in which they live. She is a wife and mother of two, a retired schoolteacher of 32 years, an active member of her community, an integral part in her church, and a dedicated proponent with the League of Women Voters. In a world of unknown variables, Winters seems to be a constant force effecting positive change.

“I’m a person that believes you need to leave the world better than you found it, and model good behavior,” said Winters.

It’s this guiding principle that was passed down to her from her parents and that she has passed on to her own children, and the generations of students that she taught along the way.

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 EDUCATION

As a teacher, I always advocated for my students, and fellow teachers,” said Winters.

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In 1973, Winters began her career as a Radnor Township schoolteacher and her life as a wife and mother. Winters spent the better part of the next three decades as a teacher for the gifted at Ithan Elementary School.

Over the years she held multiple positions, including K-12 Science Coordinator and Union Leader, working for the Radnor Township Education Association Teacher’s Union, in various roles, from building representative to president.

Winters was able to advocate for her fellow teachers and peers through her work on professional development and for her students, spending a great deal of time on curriculum work within the district.

Within the past decade, Winters has applied her knowledge of the school system and the needs of the children and teachers to a volunteer role with the Radnor Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that secures funding for the district in order to enhance the classroom setting.

“She’s a valuable member of our grants commission,” said Executive Director Joy Antonoplos. “She has great insight because of her many years of service. She’s a huge proponent and advocate for public education. And has knowledge of what is happening in the public education world.”

The seeds of Roberta’s own educational beginnings were sewn in Rhode Island, where she was born. The regional high school from which Roberta graduated was located in the middle of a potato field, she said.

From there, Roberta moved to the Philadelphia area. She attended Bucknell University where she received a Bachleor of Science degree in Biology, and met her future husband, a Devon-area native. Next, it was on Harvard where she graduated with a Masters degree in teaching and years later completed her doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Pennsylvania.

COMMUNITY

“People learn more by seeing people do the right things, than saying the right things,” said Winters. “Actions speak louder than words.”

As a long-time resident of the Radnor area, Winters has become entrenched in its success as a community.

The Baptist Church in the Great Valley recently celebrated its 300th anniversary and for the past 30 years, Winters has served as its Sunday School Superintendant and unofficial event coordinator extraordinaire.

“She is just a human dynamo,” said the Rev. John Luring, Pastor of the Baptist Church in the Great Valley. “So many times she’s the one working behind the scenes, keeps things running, keeps things on time and really makes things happen. She’s just a powerhouse.”

For the anniversary, Winters coordinated the church’s God in America series, studying the history of the Welsh settlers and the developing of the church, he said. She provided guest speakers; people of the congregation who had special memories that they were sharing.

Winters is an important participant of the crop walk every year, he continued, arranged the hayride and pumpkin hunt, she developed the Christmas dinner program and put together the youth recognition Sunday and all of the programs involved with that. She’s also the main force behind the mission project we had last spring, raising money to provide sheep to poor families in other parts of the world.

“She’s like the little engine that can,” said Luring. “She just really drives and motivates and gets people working and gets things accomplished.”

Winters is also a member of the Rosemont Garrett Hill parade committee. Each year, she helps to bring the 4th of July Parade to the area. She is also active in the Garrett Hill Coalition, working over the last few years to promote the area’s rich historical aspects, improve zoning and protect the nature of the neighborhood.

ACTIVISM

“I think there’s a gene for advocacy,” said Winters. “My mom was an advocate. She didn’t accept the status quo.”

Over the past 15 years, Winters has been a dedicated member of the Radnor League of Women Voters. The League is a national, non-partisan, politically active group who support good government. The League supports issues such as campaign finance reform and the preservation of agricultural land, but actively opposes others, including a requirement that all electors show a picture identification at the polls before they can vote.

While Winters has been a staunch advocate, working locally for many years with Radnor’s League, it was her most recent work on Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction that has propelled her into statewide issues.

In June of this year, the League appointed Winters vice president for issues and action for the state, expanding her role into voter rights, educational vouchers and redistricting.

MARCELLUS SHALE

“People’s view of right may be different from mine, but what I see is for the long term best interest. Be it in the state, my neighborhood, in my home or in my church.”

In 2009, Winters was recommended and approved to serve on the state level of the PA League of Women Voters.

“Roberta arrived in the League being an education person, as many of us do,” said President of the PA League of Women Voters, Olivia Thorne. “She was nominated to come on the board, and took up Marcellus Shale.”

The controversial technique, hydraulic frac­tur­ing or “frack­ing” is a tech­nol­ogy used to extract nat­ural gas that lies within a shale rock for­ma­tion thou­sands of feet beneath the earth’s surface. The recent surge in natural gas wells throughout the state of Pennsylvania has brought new, environmental concerns to light in the area.

When Winters learned of the implications to the state, she couldn’t sit back and do nothing. So she and the league began their process of studying and advocacy. 

“What we learned very quickly is that when Roberta gets involved in anything, she gets into it up to her eyeballs,” said Thorne. “What’s remarkable from a league stand point, is she came in, took an issue she knew nothing about and turned into an authority.”

There’s a need to strike a balance between the bottom line of the industry and the long-term effects to the state, said Winters.

The League’s study, is in line with many of the technique’s critics, trying to encourage better regulation, monitoring and enforcement.

“Economically, [natural gas drilling] is important, but we wanted to make sure to provide protections for our environments, as much as possible, while still being able to gain economically,” she said.

Under the Pennsylvania constitution, the state has a right to clean air and clean water, explained Winters. She and the League believe that there should be a commitment to that constitutional article, including a position in favor of the severance tax, so Pennsylvania isn’t stuck paying for the cleanup.

“Pipelines are the safest way, but there are ways to improve,” said Winters. “We all need energy, but is there a safer way? And if it’s at the cost of public health and safety, is there a way to safeguard, without hurting economic benefit?”

“We’re dealing with a very powerful industry and it’s going to take a village to make a difference,” she said. “Every village.”

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