The reason the Feature of the Week forum was created was to honor people who have a positive influence on this community. To qualify the person has to be an active member and one who contributes to the positive atmosphere here AdlandPro. Here are the criteria for nominating a member for the Feature of the Week (also referred to as the Person of the Week, POTW). This criterion can be seen at the site below:

Criterion

How Do I Get Selected as Person of the Week?

To be chosen as Person of the week you:

• Are highly visible on the community

• Are always seen as respectful, professional, and helpful.

• Must be nominated for the program by another member of the   Community and voted on by other members.

• Must have a real photo of themselves on their profile.

Recess is over and it's time to honor AdlandPro's very own teacher and now POTW of the week, her name is Mary Hofstetter! Mary is gone from teaching in a classroom to educating folks in the community about everything from networking to you name it. Mary is known fondly as the Panda Lady because of the little Panda Bear she takes with her where ever she goes. Well Folks, it's time to move to the back of the Bus cause we need to make room for everyone who is coming to Mary's POTW forum. Congratulations Mary on winning the Person of the Week award!  ;-)

Here's Mary's Bio:

THE FORMATIVE YEARS
My life was shaped by my the small village of Pandora, Ohio found in the middle of corn, melon, potato fields. It was a sheltered life with little knowledge of the outside world. I was born the youngest of 6 children to a father (Swiss) and mother (English) who struggled to support us. My father was a day laborer always seeking work and my mother was a full time house wife. I earned my FIRST bicyle in Jr. High school while saving my lunch money I worked in the cafeteria to earn my lunch.That was my first lesson in economics. If you want something bad enough, earn it.

School was very difficult as I had no example in my homelife of learning and the importance of education. In Jr. High I was offered the opportunity to spend time helping in a second grade class. I admired the way the teacher worked with her class, and thus my destiny was determined. My grades improved and the desire for an education became my focal point. I never turned back but persued all the courses necessary to get me into college.

We were tested in the Senior year to see what our apptitude or job skills were. When I told the man I wanted to be a teacher, he said I could never make it through college. My next choice was to be a police officer. " No " he said, "you have to live in a big city, anyway women can't be police officers." That was when I discovered a very obvious part of my personality. "No one tells me I can't"...the strong willed child won out. (It was a proud moment when my neice, a generation later became a police officer and earned recognition as the officer of the year in Lima, Ohio).

My father offered to pay my way through college if I would attend our Church college, just 6 miles from home. Because a friend was going to Bowling Green State University I was determined to follow; she didn't go and I went. Another lesson in life, don't do as others do, be your own self. I transferred to Bluffton College (Father knows best) and allowed my father to pay most of my way. I earned a B.S degree in Elementary Education and then taught for 3 years.

So what other events made me what I am today? Working at Mackinac Island, Michigan summers for two years, exposed me to the outside world and expanded my vision of the greater world. A divorce at the young age of 32 left me devisated, it was the 60's and the "Do my way" attitude was ramport. I was left with 2 small children to support and no valid teaching certificate. I returned to my family and found a job teaching severely retarded children and survived with the help o fmy family. A second marriage ended after 17 years when my husband died of a brain tumor. I was his 24/7 caregiver for a year because he became blind, unable to walk, incoherent and totaly unable to care for himself. That again created a situation of having to pick myself up by the bootstraps. Even tho I had many of hours of training (almost a Masters Degree) there was no desire to go back to teaching.

Now the family is grown and I am the grandparent and have spent 10 years working in a small warehouse where I learned what the real world was like for the working class. In 2005, with a broken foot, and stuck at home the internet became my entertainment. I heard phrases like "fire the boss", "make millions doing nothing", "create multiple streams of income." I fell for it all and you wouldn't want to know what this conservative, thrifty, independent person lost ! ! ! !

As of April 30 another goal was reached, retirement from the daily chore of going to work. Working on the internet, building a business, helping others thru volunteer work in my community now fill my days. The first 8 weeks of retirement were spent in Washington D.C. as a volunteer in a guest house and 5 weeks at a church camp in Michigan helped to make the tranition.

ADLANDPRO
I arrived here as many do placing a free ad. Then I receive an invitation to be a friend. Now I find there are forums with people joking and telling how to make money. But nothing is happening. On a conference call, I hear "Write articles to help people".

So here's what I am about.
I promote English, Spanish and Chinese on En101,internet program.

The money making program will be UVME.biz opening Jan 21, 2008

At times internet tools are offered to friends if I feel they are legitmate and worthy of my support

As I learn about tools here, I share with my friends(Panda Pointers)
As I learn marketing skills, forums to teach others are being created.(4 forums)
I am gathering persons here who are networking with me and together we will learn and support each other. (Uvme.biz)
I am sponsoring Community Events (folk festival, cookbook, Adlandpro's Super Shopping Mall, Health and Wellness) which are giving ad exposure to my friends.

Activities in Adlandpro like the newsletter and some behind the scenes acitivities are my contribution to the community.

http://community.adlandpro.com/go/mahofst/