07.17.07
It’s a Wonderly life for cycling enthusiast
It’s a Wonderly life for cycling enthusiast
Teacher Peter Wonderly is never at a loss for something to do out of the classroom; he’s a d.j., race announcer, financial planner …
BY BOB VARMETTE, Californian staff writer
e-mail: bvarmette@bakersfield.com | Monday, Jul 16 2007 11:40 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jul 17 2007 7:17 AM
Peter Wonderly never went to the event thinking it would be the start of something. He went to help out; that was natural given Wonderly’s sense of service to his community and his membership in the Kern Wheelmen cycling club.
Photos:
Photo by Amy Rymer / The Californian
Caught relaxing in his northeast Bakersfield home, Peter Wonderly takes a few minutes out of his busy schedule. Wonderly, a teacher at Auburn Community School, is also a race announcer, wedding dance disc jockey, event emcee and a financial planner for teachers, among other things.
Someone asked if he could do the announcing for the race. Wonderly’s answer: “Yes, I can.”
What has transpired since is a part-time career in race and event announcing that’s produced issue of its own. Wonderly also has a pretty good side business in deejaying wedding dances and other similar events.
That got started when a friend, a local triathlete, asked if he could do a wedding. Wonderly’s answer: “Yes, I can.”
He’s a can-do type of guy. He has been nearly his entire life. Peter quit high school at 16, got tossed out of the house, and has been working ever since. He worked while attending Bakersfield College and then Cal State Bakersfield, graduating in 1995 with a degree in history (another of his interests).
“He’s always been a high-energy person,” said Patty, his wife of 24 years. “He’s always been like this. He just has that Type A personality.”
It could be said that Peter is nearly everywhere in living his life. His full-time job, his part-time jobs, and his many interests and passions are all over the place; one thing doesn’t seem to be related to another, except they’re all tied to him.
Peter’s full-time job is as a social studies teacher at Auburn Community School in northeast Bakersfield. He helps other teachers with financial planning; there’s a passion for Southwestern art and design, and a keen interest in Celtic music, among many other things.
“It’s kind of like, you go to college and you pick stuff up,” Peter said. “We’ve embraced a lot of the stuff we’ve learned.”
Peter’s voice is now familiar to participants and attendees at local cycling and running competitions, and other events and fundraisers. But it began when he was asked to help, with no training and only his outgoing personality to guide him.
Over the years, he developed a routine and an announcing style that he considers to be of an educator behind the microphone.
“I’m trying to educate the public when I’m announcing,” Peter said. “I’m a teacher, so it’s introducing a concept and then you define it. … But it’s fun and exciting, too.”
The foray into weddings and other event services started with that one wedding in 1987, Peter said. Word of mouth did the rest.
One favorable review led to more events and more favorable reviews led to even more events. Now, Peter has $30,000 invested in equipment and often has several bookings at the same time, subcontracting out the deejaying and emceeing duties.
Announcing cycling races and working a wedding dance require two very different approaches, he said.
“The bike races are more about having fun,” Peter said. “With a wedding, you’re a little bit more dignified, more professional. Each is a little bit different.”
Peter said it was Patty who got them started with the interest in Southwestern art and design. He said it was a style that many took an interest in, then left when others came into vogue.
The Wonderlys then began to benefit from others deserting the Southwestern style, often picking up the castoffs to help turn their northeast Bakersfield residence into a home that wouldn’t seem out of place in Las Cruces or Santa Fe.
“It focuses on the environment,” Peter said. “The colors, the desert, it helps work out into an overall living scheme and landscape.”
Added Patty: “We both really like the colors and we went towards it together. He liked it; I liked it. We sort of went into it together.”
But the Southwest is not enough. There’s also Celtic music.
Peter said he’d heard it from time to time, but the interest took off after a concert given by a local group, Blarney Rubble. Peter offered to do the sound for the group at its next performance; the group called and, in a convergence of divergent themes, the couple has often hosted Celtic music performances in their Southwestern-themed back yard.
Two people inhabiting the same body?
“With Peter,” Patty said, “I think there’s more than two people in there.”
