SPANISH FORT, Ala. — With four children ranging from high school to elementary school, Teri Fisher is a busy woman.

So, why would she want to add the role of president of the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) at Spanish Fort Middle School to an already packed schedule? And why would she remain involved in the schools for the last 12 years?

Fisher also served as secretary of the Rockwell Elementary PTA.

“I wanted to get out to meet people,” she said, explaining that she and her husband, Chip, moved to the area a little more than 12 years ago. Their eldest child, Mitch, had just begun kindergarten at the time.

The couple has four children, Mitch, Tucker, Emme and Sophia.

While Fisher quickly made friends, she also found that her children liked having her in the building.

Of course they were not going to admit that.

“I think it’s helped their confidence,” she said. “That is worth a lot. Time is my only issue.”

A lack of time is also an issue for working parents, she added, saying that at SFMS, the PTA “encourages dads and moms to work on teacher hospitality one day a month.”

She explained that a PTA member chairs a committee that organizes the event, and asks parents to help with that.

“We ask parents to help chaperone the dances, too,” she added.

The PTA recently sponsored a Father-Daughter Dance at the middle school’s “cafetorium.”

She said, “The girls (were) so excited.” More than 450 signed up for the dance.

The PTA holds fundraisers — among them a “school store” that is open three days a week to raise money for things the school would not otherwise be able to afford.

One of the biggest sellers at the PTA store, Fisher reports, are “Locker Buddies,” inch-and-a-half stuffed animals with magnets on their paws so they will stick inside a school locker.

“They are a hit with both boys and girls,” she said.

The PTA used some of the money raised to furnish artwork that now hangs in the middle school. The building is new, so the walls were “pretty bare” when it opened, Fisher said.

For Fisher, the most rewarding part of the work she and the other PTA members do is “seeing the kids every day. The teachers appreciate knowing they are backed up with volunteers.”