CSAA Member Honored

Texas "Schoolmarm" Wins Community Service Award

Catharin Lewis, a former CSAA Board member, was recently recognized by the "Men and Women of  Heart" program which was created to honor outstanding community volunteers. It congratulates honorees for their substantial contribution and exemplary service to the community benefiting a variety of philanthropic and non-profit activities. Catharin's write-up for the Men and Women of Heart award follows:

Catharin Lewis, Founding Director of the West Bay Common School Children’s Museum in League City, Texas has created a retreat where children can step back in time and experience reading, writing and arithmetic as they did in the 1890s. The Museum includes an authentic 1898 one-room schoolhouse and is truly a testament to Catharin’s dedication. Since the Museum opened in 1993, over 60,000 children from 1200 schools and organizations throughout the state of Texas have visited this experiential school as part of their elementary Texas History curriculum.

The Galveston Daily News presented Catharin with their Unsung Hero Award, and her work at the one-room schoolhouse has also been recognized at the state and national level by the Texas Historical Commission and the American Association of State and Local History. Catharin serves as Director, Curator, Archivist, Docent, Fundraiser, Marketing Manager, Accountant, and Janitor for the museum. She volunteers many hours at these jobs, as well as the hours of her husband, Richard, who helps in restoration and maintenance. This Home Economics graduate, with a major in Family and Child Development, who arrived in the Houston Bay Area in 1983 from Maryland, also finds time to devote to other community activities. 

Catharin, a former Director of Youth Ministry at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frederick, Maryland, currently serves on the Boards of the League City Historical Society, the Clear Creek Republican Women, and the Fairview Cemetery Association, as well as a past volunteer of the Lunar Rendezvous Festival. She was most recently chairman of the 2007 League City Historical Society’s, “Living History Dinner.”

Catharin is a proud mother of three children and 10 grandchildren. She is also very proud of giving birth, fourteen years ago, to the West Bay Common School Children’s Museum, which holds a very special place in her heart.

Photos: West Bay Common School, League City Texas, Catharin with students, interior of West Bay, Catharin and Richard at the Men and Women of Heart Gala.