Smith/Rupp Fund
Pat McKinney, Smith/Rupp Chair
The KARSP Smith/Rupp Funds are established monies to provide limited financial resources for KARSP members who are in financial need of the basics of life. These include help with providing food, paying medical bills and prescriptions, hospital bills, utility bills, or telephone bills. Assistance in paying dues is, also, available.
All members, in any capacity: bus drivers, office staff, custodial and maintenance workers, classroom aides, lunchroom workers, principals, and teachers are eligible for assistance.
All information will be kept strictly confidential.
Please contact Pat McKinney at 269-876-9660 or patm7101@gmail.com.

We would like you to know more about our KARSP Membership. In the Spotlight are:

Ginnie and Kevin Doerfler – KARSP Members

Kevin taught 8th grade US History in Schoolcraft for 8 years, where he also was the track coach, middle school athletic director and produced and directed two school musicals. After earning his Masters in Educational Leadership from WMU, he was the Assistant Principal at Bangor Middle School for two years before being hired by KPS to be the assistant principal at Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts. He did this for 3 years before becoming the head principal at Maple Street and served for three years in that role. Desiring to spend more time with family, Kevin then accepted the Assistant Principal position at Portage West Middle School, where Ginnie worked as a special education teacher. He served the last eight years of his career there.

Ginnie began her career in April of 1986, at Loy Norrix High School as a long-term substitute in her beloved Physically or Otherwise Health Impaired classroom, where she was blessed to have done her student teaching with Carole Cupps, the Fall of 1985. She held this position for about a year before being hired to teach in a learning-disabled classroom at Norrix. The next year, due to having low seniority, Ginnie was bumped to Washington Elementary to teach in the upper elementary Special Education classroom, where she stayed for four years before hearing of an opening in the Upper Elementary Physically or Otherwise Health Impaired classroom at Parkwood UpJohn. She spent two years in this room before choosing to transfer to teach upper Elementary Special Ed at King-Westwood, under the amazing leadership of Pat Chalmers. She and Kevin lived in Westwood at the time, and she often enjoyed walking to work in the two years she was there. She then took an itinerant teacher consultant position in Portage Public Schools for four years where she was able to once again have the honor of working for Annice O’Brien, her former special ed supervisor in KPS. Ginnie provided pre-referral interventions evaluations and support to general education teachers as well as individual support to special education students at Woodland, Haverhill, and Moorsbridge Elementaries. Four years later, an opening came at Portage West Middle, where Ginnie would be able to continue working with students and their parents, who she loved from Woodland and Moorsbridge. She took her last leap and spent the last 21 years of her career at West Middle, which then led her and Kevin to move into Woodbridge Hills and live where she taught.

Kevin and Ginnie will celebrate their 37th anniversary this July 1st and have one amazing daughter, Lauren, who graduated from Portage Central and started teaching Art in Portage right before COVID hit. She taught elementary art for four years in Portage, and one year at Portage Central Middle, before starting her private practice, as a therapist at Desert Streams Christian Counseling in Kalamazoo 2 ½ years ago. She loves what she does, and we are so proud of her! She has been married to her husband Luke for three years and has a ten-year-old stepson, Roman, whom we all love and adore! They also have a nine-pound Morkie named Gracie Penelope Smalls, who brings lots of joy and love to their family.

Kevin and Ginnie love to travel, entertain, have people come to Gun Lake and get them out on their boat, spend time on the water, watch sunsets on their boat, cook and can foods together, mentor and encourage younger married couple/parents, have dinner and game nights with friends, spend time with Lauren, her husband and bonus grandson, attend WMU Hockey games and serve in several ministries at Peace Church, Middleville.

Ginnie joined MARSP and KARSP three years before she retired to gather info as she prepared for retirement and started attending the luncheons when she retired in 2018. Kevin joined two years later when he retired in 2020. They joined to support the causes that relate to education and our retirement and to keep in touch with friends from KPS and PPS. They like attending the luncheons best where they can visit with cherished friends, be kept up to date on legislative issues affecting us and hear from the various guest speakers.

We love sharing what we have here at our lake, so if you would like to come for a boat ride on beautiful Gun Lake, don’t be shy and please reach out to us to get that on the calendar!