Chris Amelon
She’s giving something back to her community
Chris Amelon thinks people are responsible for their communities and should help out wherever they can.
“I think everyone who lives in a community has a job,” said Amelon, 34. “Those who don’t have a job outside the home have a job. I really strongly believe in that sense where we can’t always take from our community. We have to give something, too.”
Amelon has practiced this belief by helping out children in her neighborhood near Weber Elementary as well as the school itself, where her daughter, Jordan, 8, is in second grade, and son Ben, 6, is in first grade. In recent years, she has worked on the new playground at the school, and currently serves on the Weber Education Fund committee and as co-president of the school’s PTA. She said other parents asked her to help.
“As both of them got into school,” Amelon said of her children, “I had more time to do things. A lot of things in schools happen through the PTA. It’s been a learning experience.”
Amelon also has taken her love of sports into helping the community. An avid University of Iowa football fan, she regularly organizes outings to games, including the last four bowl games. In addition, she organizes spur-of-the-moment football, soccer and other games in her backyard, for which about eight children typically show up.
“We have the biggest backyard,” she said. “That’s the old Iowa saying, ‘If you build it, they will come.’”
She also has been active with her daughter’s softball team.
“I was always one who jumped in,” Amelon said. “I love sports, so it was a natural fit. It’s a group of girls who are new to the sport and eager to learn.”
No matter what she is involved in, she always displays a positive attitude, neighbor Kara Logsden said. Amelon credited much of that to what she learned studying psychology at UI, from where she graduated in 1994.
“People always respond to positive reinforcement,” Amelon said. “Being involved with youth … things are hard enough for kids in sports. (Positive reinforcement) helps them enjoy it more and get more out of it.”
— Rob Daniel
