All Hail The Queen Reflecting on a Lifetime of Service to Others Roberta Quan is this year’s recipient of the 2015 Fred Breen Humanitarian Award, presented on behalf of the YMCA of the East Bay, of which Quan is a contributing member at the Hilltop Family YMCA location. This award is earned from her selfless contributions to her local YMCA, which is really a continuation of a lifetime of good deeds with even more up ahead. Native to the Bay Area, Quan grew up in the Fairfield/Suisun area. As a child she attended Gomer School, the little red schoolhouse that’s still standing on Abernathy Road in Suisun Valley—a graduation class of 5. She then attended Armijo High School in Fairfield and later attended UC Berkeley earning a double major in Education and Art. “I had two separate careers,” said Quan. She first worked as an artist for a paper company in San Francisco, creating all the visuals (graphs, etc.) for the executive meetings as computers weren’t quite By Matt Larson as predominant in her day. Her second career was working as an elementary school teacher in West County, officially putting both her college degrees to use! A rare occurrence indeed. She taught at Kerry Hills Elementary for 12 years and Ohlone Elementary for 13 years. “It was something I truly loved,” she said. “I loved to do things above and beyond, especially on the creative end.” One of many examples of this was her directing the Ohlone Operettas for 11 years. Quan made it happen, despite every obstacle. “At 6-8 years old, it’s hard to memorize things,” she said. “We bought operettas for the high school level and then I rewrote them so that the children could memorize it.” Above and beyond indeed. “It was a lot of work but to me it was worthwhile, because the kids got the experience.” Today, after 20 years of retirement, she’s adopted somewhat of a 3rd career at the YMCA.
Contra Costa Marketplace - Aug 2015
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