Nurse Mary tapped for major award: Chosen State School Nurse of the Year

Shelter Island’s Mary Kanarvogel is receiving the New York State Nurses Association’s Excellence in School Nursing (EISN) Award, honored at the organization’s March 21-22 Conference in Albany.

Ms. Kanarvogel — or  Nurse Mary, as she is affectionately known‚ is revered by Islanders — school officials, parents, students and the wide community she serves in so many capacities.

With her reward will be a $500 scholarship Ms. Kanarvogel  will present to a graduating senior seeking to become a registered nurse.

Visit her in her office at Shelter Island School and you will experience a parade of students coming in, not because all are ill; they know they will find a caring adult ready not just to dispense band-aids or a bit of rest from a headache, but someone recognizing they need to talk, or just get a respite from something troubling them.

Thanks to her outreach to the community, Ms. Kanarvogel generally knows what’s going on in a student’s life, whether it’s something in a classroom or at home.

Superintendent Brian Doelger, Ed.D., who nominated her for the award,  described her as “one of the most dynamic and amazing people I have ever met in my life.” He called her “the center of the school that makes everything work,” and noted she has been an adviser to him on all school issues.

It’s thanks to Ms. Kanarvogel, and a team she leads, that no child on the Island goes without a visit from Santa Claus at Christmas, even if parents’ budgets are too tight to make the holiday special for their children.

“Nurse Mary is a medical expert,” Mr. Doelger said, noting she is “constantly taking training and professional development to stay on top.” She helped implement policies to enable the district to return to the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic as early or earlier than other school districts in the state, and helped establish one of the first school district vaccination pods working with Town officials to respond to the needs of Islanders, Mr. Doelger said.

But her largess doesn’t stop within the school, he added.

“She is an advocate for those in need,” he said, delivering meals to families that need some assistance, and brought the Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation (CAST) to the Island, providing nourishing food to residents trying to stretch their food budgets.

Ms. Kanarvogel is “trusted and revered by parents, staff and, most importantly, our children, as someone they go to for care and trust,” Mr. Doelger said.

She also brought an evening English class for Spanish-speaking parents to the district.

Ms. Kanarvogel was the Reporter’s 2019 Person of the Year. At the time, Mr. Doelger said of her, “She does anything that anyone needs.” She and her husband Mark Kanarvogel have long volunteered with the Island’s Emergency Medical Service. Working with the Lions Club, she’s distributed IGA food cards and helped families with heating expenses and winter coats.

At the time of the Reporter’s selection of its Person of the Year, Board of Education President Kathleen Lynch said students come to Nurse Mary to share their successes and disappointments, and sometimes just because they miss their mothers.

“Mary is a super hero,” Ms. Lynch said. “She listens and then she listens some more.”