Linda Louzier
Hartford Area Career Technology Center
Linda Louzier, dressed in her hat and apron, is busy helping to advise the Hartford Area Career Technology Center Culinary Arts students about how best to complete decorating their gingerbread houses for the annual Gingerbread Festival, an annual fundraiser. Over 100 gingerbread houses are auctioned off each year resulting in about 80,000 dollars raised for non-profit organizations. Each student’s work is unique and they have painstakingly discovered with her guidance how to make intricate designs and use a variety of colored icings and candies to make their own signature house.
Louzier serves as a teaching assistant in the Culinary Arts and the Human Services program. “I know my way around kitchens and restaurants having worked as a waitress for several years,” she said as she kept moving around the large industrial looking kitchen. She also can knock the ball out of the park with her gingerbread house decorating talents as we discovered when she quickly added a few more icicles to her gingerbread creation.
“I recognize the importance of healthy eating and I often provide snacks for the staff meetings,” she said. “Last year I led a cooking class for one of the VEHI PATH wellness leader events, created a wellness website for all the employees and posted lots of healthy recipes.” According to her colleague, Christine Flanagan, Louzier is an amazing wellness rock star. “I am so impressed with her and all she does; it takes so much energy and she is a mom to three (two daughters and a son) and a grandmother to eight children too. Her family, our school and her community are her focus and she keeps us all informed of new wellness oriented activities and programs.”
Louzier doesn’t have to go far to see some of her family members. Her daughters, Amy Willey and Jessica Gardner are Hartford Area Career Technology Center employees. Louzier had already earned her 200 PATHpoints by last December. “I can easily accumulate 20,000 steps on a busy day, going up and down three flights of stairs and walking all over the school,” she said proudly.
Outside of working at the school, Louzier enjoys knitting, gardening and kayaking. “Kayaking is one of my all-time favorite activities, come the summer months,” she said. “We have a family cabin in Norton that our family built together as a place to get away several years ago.” Louzier has her heart set on an adventure come the next year or two. “My husband and I are planning a trip to Alaska in a truck camper, “she said. “I have visited 43 states and I am anxious to get more. “
