LARA director announces retirement

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The founding and only director the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy (LARA) has ever known announced Monday she will retire at the end of the year.

JoAnn Vorst has served as LARA Director since the program began in 1976. She read a letter Monday night to the Lafayette School Corporation, the fiscal agent for LARA, announcing that she will resign as director on Dec. 31.

She donated a kidney to her husband this summer. Although both she and her husband are doing well, she said it served as a wake-up call for her to step down and hand the reins to someone else.

She told News 18 that even in retirement, she wants to be a volunteer ambassador because helping people has always been the best paycheck.

"It's very tough because most importantly I love it so much," said Vorst. "I love going into the academy and seeing all the learners."

Vorst was asked to direct the project as a graduate student at Purdue studying under the professor who wrote the original grant.