A Winter Worth Smiling About

MLK Day may have been the first time students saw officer Lauri Winter in the spotlight, and not everyone knows the campus-wide coverage to which her job extends.Winter is one of the Academy’s Campus Safety officers, (one of whom is likely to wake you up early in the morning for fire drills). She works the night shift on campus, 4 p.m. to midnight, and her duties range from building inspections to accident investigations.Before she went into law enforcement, Winter was an Emergency Medical Technician. As a police officer she worked at the Conway Police Department and the Rochester Police Department. She then took a job at Exeter Hospital after the birth of her first son. While there, she also worked in real estate and managed a luxury jet charter company. Soon, her intense desire to help people prompted her to apply for a part-time security officer post at the Academy, which ultimately led to the full-time job she currently holds.Aside from keeping Exonians safe, Winter is an avid supporter, connoisseur and participant in performing arts. She began dancing at the age of five, which translated to her figure skating. Soon, she discovered singing, and it became her new passion. In high school, she attained lead roles in musicals and went on to apprentice at the American Stage Festival. In her teen years she joined the stage performance group the Sandwich Players, based in Sandwich, N.H., and performed in many Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas. Here, she met her opera teacher with whom she began proper vocal training. This led to her performance on MLK day, which was an “enormous honor” for her. “I was more nervous performing that day than on any other stage I have ever performed on,” she said.

“Officer Winter keeps everyone in line with her mothering nature and loving attitude.”

Winter’s jubilant presence on campus does not go unnoticed by her coworkers. Tegan Vassillion, the campus’ Environmental Health and Safety Manager, works alongside Winter during fire drills, building inspections and accident investigations. “It is always a little bit brighter with her in the office and we all laugh a little harder,” Vassillion said, describing the effect Winter has on the workspace.Director of Campus Safety Paul Gravel articulated that “Lauri’s presence on campus is not really considered a job to her. It is what she looks forward to each day and what drives her to provide outstanding customer care, what Lauri would call ‘family’ service.”When asked about strengths that Winter possesses as Campus Safety officer, both colleagues’ replies included that the members of the Academy were “family” to Winter. Perhaps this consideration is what makes her convivial nature so enveloping and maternal to everyone she meets. “Officer Winter keeps everyone in line with her mothering nature and loving attitude,” Vassillion said. “Whether it is remembering birthdays or just giving a friendly smile when she recognizes that you may not be having the best day, office Winter is always there for her team.”Winter admitted to this nickname of “the overseeing mother on campus” and added, “being a mother of three in my own life allows me a bit more understanding of the students here as well.”Her passion for theater has also thrived on campus. This winter, she was approached by Robert Richards, head of the theater department and director of the winter musical, to choreograph the mainstage production of “Into the Woods.” Richards explained that the two became acquainted through “friendly chats along the path [that] led to more friendly chats, which led to spirited chats about theatre. Theatre has infinite ways of connecting people.”Through their conversations, Richards discovered that he had seen Winter in multiple shows performed with the Sandwich Players. Coincidentally, Winters discovered she had seen Richards perform in a summer stock production of Frankenstein at the American Stage Festival. They had worked at the stage festival at the same time, so Richards reasoned this was “a long overdue collaboration, after various close called degrees of separation. Shakespeare wasn’t kidding: All the world really is a stage.”Vassillion and Winter are two of four women working in the vast Campus Safety department at PEA. Winter made it clear that in her time here, she has never been faced with any particular discrimination as a female working in a male-dominated field. Winter even affirmed the integrity of her colleagues. “I work with a supportive and professional group of people who do not treat me any differently because I am a woman,” he said. “I think being a female on this campus is actually a benefit. My perspective is different than a male perspective in some situations.”Of the vast pursuits Winter has undertaken, she says her position on campus “has been by far the best job I have ever had.” Her devotion to her career and her colleagues is well noted by all who get to know her. Vassillion puts into words the appreciation our school has for officer Winter: “The Academy is not just a job to her, we are all an extension of her family and it shows every day in her passion and dedication to her work.”