Tempty when Karen Huigens arrives on weekends. Armed with plastic bags and her sweet, black Labrador named Doobie, she gets busy picking up trash and sprucing up the elementary school campus that has been part of her life for more than six decades.
Children usually spot her and come running to say hello and help.
“Mrs. Huigens, Mrs. Huigens!” they all say to their favorite kindergarten teacher – whether they had been a student in her classroom or just knew her from her many philanthropic projects at Roynon Elementary School in La Verne.
Huigens attended Roynon as a child and taught kindergarten there for more than 20 years. Since retiring, she has led a volunteer movement to transform the campus. To make it look as beautiful and exceptional as it is, she said.
Huigens and volunteers have landscaped the entire two-campus school, spent years collecting large rocks Huigens to line garden areas, and planned for and raised money for an impressive school garden and gazebo, as well as made-for-Roynon concrete benches. She also maintains everything she has planted – or hires someone to do so when she’s not in town.
And then there’s the constant picking up of trash. Students and parents alike often ask her why she does it, especially when, at 66, there is so much she could be doing during her retirement. Her answer is always the same.
“We should always leave a place more beautiful than we found it.”
But there’s so much more to the story of Karen Huigens.
J. Marion Roynon, 1926
The school is named after Huigens’ grandfather, John Marion Roynon.
Roynon began teaching at what was then called Lincoln School in 1926. He later became principal, and then created a bit of controversy soon after he was named Superintendent of the La Verne City Schools in 1947, when he called for an end to the segregation of white and Latino students.
Roynon loved to garden and camp, and often took his grandchildren into the mountains or to campgrounds to explore nature. And inevitably, he always gathered the children together to pick up trash and clean the area before they left.
“This is what my grandfather instilled in all of us, and what my goal is for kids,” Huigens said. “I want kids to have an understanding of why it is so important to pick up trash around you, even if it’s not yours.”
The Library
Huigens and other Roynon teachers Committee are currently raising money with a Friday-morning recycling drive to pay for a reading garden in front of the school library – which is a “hub of activity” throughout the day and even in the summer.
Huigens hopes to start work on the $15,000-project early next year.
Plans call for a three-sided gazebo, a tree surrounded by large boulders to sit on, as well as shrubbery. The outside wall of the library will also be adorned with tile mosaics featuring student drawings of their favorite literary characters.
“It would be so nice to sit outside, in the shade, and read a book,” said Librarian Linda Plumley.
Huigens’ devotion to Roynon Elementary goes beyond her familial connections.
“I love this school. I think it’s exceptional,” she said, beaming. “We need to celebrate the places that are exceptional.”