Karin Falkenstein is the principal of Ottawa Elementary. She has a number of volunteer endeavors, including the Little Bucks Bookmobile, which began this summer.

Most recently she was nominated for her work with the Tin Shop, a community theater located in Buchanan.

Falkenstein has been a volunteer at the Tin Shop since 1983 and has served as the president, treasurer and currently serves as the secretary, where she takes meeting minutes, manages communication and archives the theater’s performances in scrapbooks, to name just a few tasks.

How did you get involved with the Tin Shop?

I really liked the theater when I was a little girl. We used to go into Chicago on the train to visit my aunt. She would meet us at the train station. We would go to not necessarily a theater, but a big movie house and we would stay overnight and have dinner some place. Not anywhere super fancy, because it is Chicago. That was always fascinating. I still love going to the theaters in Chicago. My sister and I will always meet up and go up to the Purple Rose.

What do you enjoy most about
your volunteer work there?

[I enjoy] encouraging people to go to the theater. A lot of people just happened upon us. They did not even know we were in Buchanan [even though] they live there. [We often hear] how impressed they were.

It is just a small community theater. We do not have a huge budget or anything. The city helps to support us and we use [revenue] from ticket sales. It is just thrilling.

The last production [“We the People”] that director Alice Kring did was phenomenal. Most of the people in the production are families. You get people that are very committed to the theater. We have good people helping us.

Why would you encourage
other people to volunteer?

It is important to give back.