Citizen Spotlight: Vicky Goetz

For many families, meeting the challenges of modern work-life balance can be difficult, with early mornings, late nights, and having to find someone you can trust to care for your children. For decades, citizens of Excelsior Springs have entrusted their children to the care of the before and after-school childcare program, Rockin’ Tiger Club, provided by the Excelsior Springs School District. At the helm of this successful program is Vicky Goetz who will be retiring at the end of June after more than 35 years of serving our students and families. “Ms. Vicky” as her students call her, was the founding director of the program but has decided “the time is right” to move on.

Vicky and her husband, who worked for the food management company, Opaa!, moved to Excelsior Springs nearly 38 years ago and quickly settled in. It wasn’t long before Vicky received a phone call from ESSD central office asking her to consider taking on the role of program director. Vicky jumped at the opportunity, but she said she wasn’t sure she’d made the right choice at first. “To be honest, the first day when I went home, I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do this job.’ Some of the kids were pretty difficult and very different from my own kids at home, but a lot of those kids ended up being my favorites,” she recollected.

At first, she says the program was pretty sparse. “Connie Hawkins and I were co-directors of the program and we had nothing. We had some puzzles, we had some games, and we would scrounge for anything to keep the kids entertained,” she laughed. Vicky recalled that they would remove the cardboard backing of legal pads just so kids would have something to paint on. Over the years the program has expanded dramatically, offering academic support as well as a multitude of activities for the kids. Vicky said the growth of Rockin’ Tiger Club is due in large part to the overwhelming support of the community. “One that immediately comes to mind is the Elks Lodge, who have donated the use of their pool every summer for about 20 years. More recently, Miller Cabinets donated a gorgeous new kitchen playset for our kids. There are just so, so many,” she said.

Vicky said she loves it when she’s out in the community and runs into one of her old students. She said there have been many times when they give her a hug or share a story of the way she supported them, that even she’d forgotten about. “I had one particular young man who came up to me, who had been very, very, challenging, and I thought ‘uh, oh, how’s this going to end up,’ but he told me, ‘thank you for always being nice to me when I wasn’t always nice to you.’ It’s those moments where you know you’ve made an impact,” she said. Vicky said that no matter how old she gets, every one of the thousands of students who passed through the Rockin’ Tiger Club will always be one of “her kids.”

Vicky doesn’t see herself moving from Excelsior Springs anytime soon. Not only is Excelsior Springs “home,” but it’s also centrally located from her five children and ten grandchildren. She plans to stay busy visiting her family and friends and doing other grandmotherly activities like crafting and shopping. “When we moved here, it was just like the people took us in. They were so friendly and it’s been a very good town for us,” she said smiling. Her only advice to citizens is to get involved with the issues that are important to them. “There’s always going to be something wrong, or something that you don’t agree with, if you’re not proud of where you live, then you need to do something to make it better,” she concluded.