By Anne Groebner

Jamie Starkey-Die loves spiders. I’m not sure I have ever met anyone that loved those small, creepy, eight-legged creatures. It’s one of my phobias for sure. But Jamie would beg to differ. I noticed her post on Facebook once when she was pleading the case of a wolf spider. It makes sense, though, Jamie’s heart is in the right place. She spends her days caring about the community and the dogs, cats, people — and spiders, that live here.

Not only did the spider thing catch my attention, but if you ever check out her Facebook page, you wonder how many costumes she has hanging in her closet. As it turns out, she is a Spirit Fairy at the Blue Ridge Elementary School and she wears a vast variety of costumes. What does a Spirit Fairy do? They make kids happy! And that is exactly what Jaimie’s goal is. To make children happy and to provide them a safe place to land, when needed.

The night I called her to do this interview, she was cleaning out her freezer so she could fit the elk she harvested from this hunting season, inside it. She found a ton of frozen blueberries she bought last summer and, on a whim, decided to make blueberry jam. I caught her as she was boiling jars, but she stopped to talk to me about her amazing life of making a difference in the lives of so many people — most of them being kids and dogs.

Jamie is a self-contained teacher for special ed, ages kindergarten through sixth grade. Her students need full support in the classroom. They stay in her classroom most of the time, but occasionally are included in general education. Some have downs syndrome, are in wheelchairs or have feeding tubes. Some are non-verbal autism kids who may have abilities but are unable to communicate emotionally or socially.

Her career started about 14 years ago, when she was an aide for the pre-school, where her youngest daughter was enrolled. They encouraged her to get her teaching certification. She wasn’t an educator in the beginning, but she went back and got her General ED in Special Education and then got a masters in autism.

She is also part of the Literacy Program for Blue Ridge Elementary School (see article page 24) and is on the Sunshine Committee. The Sunshine Committee brings joy and happiness to the school. Not just for kids, but for teachers as well. Every quarter, Jamie becomes a “Crockpot Queen” and coordinates a “get together” for the teachers.

And, she’s a Spirit Fairy. She does this with the second grade teacher, Rachel Cotellesse, who she says is a pillar for the school. Together they dress in costume, especially at Christmas, when they never wear the same costume twice. It’s their way of ensuring positive reinforcement within the school building and making things happy for the kids. This week is “Kindness Week,” which is the week of Valentine’s Day; Monday is pajama day, Tuesday is Neon Day (where kids show their sparkle, she says), Wednesday is Sports Day and Thursday (Valentine’s Day), is Kindness Day — she will be wearing a costume, but she wouldn’t tell me what she would be wearing. “It’s always a surprise, she says, “I can’t tell you.”

Jamie has been a volunteer at the Humane Society for over 15 years. I published her picture in this magazine earlier, when I saw she had adopted a senior dog, named Kota, who had been at the shelter for 907 days. She would have adopted him sooner, but she had taken home another dog that had fused vertebrae from his hip to his tail and couldn’t risk bringing home an active dog like Kota. She did, however, walk him almost every day.

Jamie volunteers for Critter Camp — a camp for kids held at the Humane Society every summer. I could tell that this was something very important to her. It’s held in June and is three one-week sessions: 6-9 yr, 10-12 (will take a little older), and Graduate Camp. Graduates are past campers that come and work at the shelter to see the behind the scenes and also at the DOGhouse for a day to see where the shelter’s daily expense money comes from.

The Camp’s first 2 sessions are packed full of learning activities provided by community members. They invite Navajo County Search and Rescue (NCSAR), therapy dogs, agility dogs, tricks and treats, Animal Control (last year Navajo County and Show Low came), and Wild Wednesday where exotic pets come to show kids about why they don’t make the best pets. Campers also learn about the importance of spay/neuter/microchip and watch a surgery if they want to. NCSAR does training, having their dogs find the Campers that hide, and Animal Control “traps” the Campers and lets them mess with their gear. They keep it as a surprise, so it’s more exciting.

Other activities include walking dogs properly, socializing puppies and kittens, and cats, ground clean-up, aka poop patrol officers, and their favorite, reading to the animals! “It doesn’t matter if you are a good readers because nobody has taught the animals how to read,” Jamie tells them, “so just do your best.” And, if the story is too hard, use the pictures to create a new story. It really helps the timid readers feel better about reading out loud.

They also take them crawdadding if there’s water at the creek. There are prizes for the first, biggest, and most. Sometimes, there is a special prize for someone who’s creeped out but will hold one for a pic, lol.

It’s a fun camp!



Imagine what the world would be like if we had 

more Jamies.