You can probably make a movie out of anyone’s life. It could be a drama or a tale of horror.
This is a love story.
Last month, retired grade school teacher Doug Leech donated $10,000 to Park Forest Elementary District 163 to buy 750 books, which breaks down to one book for every kindergarten through third grade student.
Family and friends donated the money to honor Jane Wilkinson Leech, Doug’s beloved wife who died of cancer this past August. The Leeches taught in the district for more than three decades.
Jane, who was hired as a teacher in 1971, taught primary grades. Doug, employed in 1972, taught sixth grade and social studies in the junior high school.
Their life together began as if it were a plot for a romantic comedy. Call it “When Doug Met Jane.” They came from different sides of the state. Doug grew up in South Chicago Heights, went to Bloom High School and Coe College in Iowa. Jane, from Downstate Herrin, was a graduate of Southern Illinois University.
Doug never forgot the day and the place they first met.
Cue the scene.
“It was a Saturday afternoon in 1973 and I was at Merlin’s Restaurant in the plaza when a pretty girl smiled at me and asked me to go sky diving,” Doug said.
Although Jane Wilkinson and Doug were both teachers in the District 163, until that moment in time they never met.
“She was with a club looking for 12 people needed to create an outing,” he recalled.
It turns out Doug was merely number six. Somehow numbers did not matter. He went sky diving and they began to see each other. Fast forward to Thanksgiving 1974 when the two were married. They bought a home on Sioux Street in Park Forest, where they raised two children, Christopher and Allison, while continuing to teach.
Both retired in 2003 and by that time had moved from Park Forest to Richton Park and then to New Lenox. But the two still worked five more years as consultants for the district. Jane was still in the Reading Recovery program at Mohawk, Blackhawk and Beacon Hill schools while Doug was a substitute administrator.
Jane was an accomplished quilter who enjoyed making covers for family and friends. She was an avid golfer, and for 15 years was an active tennis player at the Park Forest Tennis and Health Club.
This movie should have ended with rosy sunset as a fade-out, but the script changed when Jane was diagnosed with a rare form of bile duct cancer. Her death brought about the inevitable family question of how should her life be honored. Doug said the usual trickle of money to one or another group or charity was not to his liking.
It was their daughter, Allison, who suggested a Go Fund Me page on Facebook. Donations, large and small, came pouring in as those who knew this stalwart teacher began spreading the word. The result was overwhelming. Within one month, $10,000 had been raised on the Reading for Jane page. Then, Doug reached out to District 163 Superintendent Caletha White.
He wanted to carry on Jane’s work and thought of award-winning books for children, and mentioned “Trombone Shorty,” the life story of a musician. There were lots of books for children that won national awards. They were the books that might appeal to the younger students and were probably books Jane used as part of her efforts.
How many books could be bought for $10,000?
Doug said when the superintendent shared that was enough to provide every primary school student with one book, he was floored.
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“I never thought we could do it,” he said.
The circle was complete when he was told all the students would get a book by this Thanksgiving, the anniversary of the marriage of Doug and Jane.
This story will continue through the minds of every child influenced by a book given by one teacher in memory of another. Hopefully, it will be a play it forward tale and a movie without a final scene.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.