Clarke Central High School custodian Blanca Lynch stands in the English wing after school on Feb. 4. Lynch has worked in Clarke County School District schools for the last two years and loves interacting with the student body.“I worked 19 years at McDonald’s and hardly got a thank you at all, never got anything. When I came here, I always heard thank you every day and that made me so happy and feel so important because I was never really thanked at McDonald’s,” Lynch said. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
The ODYSSEY Media Group will provide viewers with stylized profiles that center on people in the Athens community telling their own stories.
By LUCIA BERMUDEZ – Print Editor-in-Chief
Blanca Lynch has been a hard worker all her life, and continues to work hard at her job as a custodian at Clarke Central High School.
Looking at Clarke Central High School custodian Blanca Lynch, one would see a hard-working woman, someone who does her job well and keeps to herself. One would see her arrive at school every day at 7 a.m. and leave at 3:30 p.m.
alongside the students.
But looking at her, there is a lot one may not know.
One may not know her mother was never in her life, which greatly affected her growing up. She was raised by her grandparents, who were her biggest supporters.
One may not know she dropped out of high school. She attended CCHS, but dropped out in 1998. She then attended a boarding school in Peru, and at 19 years old, returned to the U.S., where she began to work and provide for her grandparents as they did for her.
One may not know she became independent at 19, and has been independent ever since. Still in Athens, she worked hard to provide herself with everything she needed at a young age, and continues to do so today for her family.
One may not know she has three young boys with her loving husband, Oscar Cornelio. Her sons, Ulysis, Christopher and Adam, are the joys of her life and who motivate her and her husband to work hard every day.
Lynch spent 19 years working at McDonalds, several of those years in management. She knew she did not want to stay there forever, but it was a job, and not working has never been an option for her.
When a new opportunity opened up two years ago to work as a custodian for the Clarke County School District, she happily took the job. She has always enjoyed working, and she puts her heart into her work at CCHS, wanting the school to look “presentable” and wanting the students to have a nice and clean place to learn every day.
What she loves most about her job at CCHS is the well-deserved appreciation she receives from students.
“I worked 19 years at McDonald’s and hardly got a thank you at all, never got anything. When I came here, I always heard thank you every day and that made me so happy and feel so important because I was never really thanked at McDonald’s,” Lynch said. “It makes me want to do my work more.”
So as students pass her in the halls day in and day out, they may not know her story. They may not know what led her to this point in her life, but one thing is certain: she works hard, and will continue to work hard no matter where life takes her.
