FORT RUCKER, Ala. (May 22, 2015) -- The Fort Rucker Thrift Shop serves the Fort Rucker community by providing deals for shoppers and consignments for sellers, but it also gives back by providing grants to help teachers be better educators.
The newly formed Teacher Grant Program awarded nearly $17,000 in grants during a ceremony at the thrift shop May 13 to 14 teachers of schools on post and in the surrounding communities that serve more than 2,500 students, according to Cris Higginbotham, program coordinator and Fort Rucker Thrift Shop board secretary.
The grants are awarded to help local area educators accomplish their goals in the classroom, she added.
"We are proud that this money will be used in your classroom and will help you accomplish your goal of teaching our students to the highest standards," Higginbotham said during the ceremony. "This program will not only influence your classroom and your students, but also has the potential to influence every teacher around you and, as a consequence, all the students in the school."
Teachers submitted applications for the program and were scored based on a rigorous rubric, and the amount awarded to each teacher was based on the project they asked to be funded, Higginbotham said.
The teachers who were recognized and the amounts awarded follow.
Terri Tullis, Coppinville Junior High School. Tullis was awarded $275 for her math program. She said she loves teaching because every day she has the opportunity to have a positive effect on 140 lives.
Lauren Lott, Dauphin Junior High School. Awarded $600 for her math program. Lott loves teaching because she said she has the best students in the world and loves to see them grow in their learning.
Jennifer Supri from D.A. Smith Middle School. Supri was awarded $2,500 to help start her Chromebook Classroom. She said she loves teaching because it is the only career in which people can inspire the future of every career. She likes to think that the next president who will govern this country, famous surgeon who may save her life and mechanic who will repair her car are all sitting in her room.
Patrick Cain, Enterprise City Schools. Cain was awarded $3,650 for the junior high schools' Science, Technology, Engineering and Math project, and has been in education for over a decade as a mathematics teacher, assistant principal and principal.
Leslie Royer, Carroll High School. Awarded $2,000 for her community food garden. Royer said she loves teaching science at Carroll because she gets to do awesome experiments with brilliant students on a daily basis.
Deborah Owens, WeeCats Preschool. Owens was awarded $2,700 for her WeeCats Sensory Garden. She said she believes that a positive self-image is the main ingredient to a child's success, adding that it is her job as a teacher to make this a priority.
Amy Hatcher, Carroll High School. Hatcher was awarded $1,000 for her Skilled for Life program. She said she loves teaching in this area because it gives her a daily opportunity to promote each student's abilities in a world that highlights their disability. She teaches them to be skilled for life, not just academic success.
Margaret Tyner, College Street Elementary School. Awarded $350 for her Art Bots project. Tyner said she enjoys all the things she learns with and from her students.
Emily Herbert, Zion Chapel High School. Herbert was awarded $400 for her growing STEM project. She said she feels it is her privilege to assist young people as they take on challenges, struggle with them and persist until they overcome them.
Brenda Forti, Fort Rucker Elementary School. Awarded $150 for her measuring tools project. Forti said she gets to interact with the most enthusiastic, exciting and entertaining individuals every day -- her students.
Donna Lampley, Rucker Boulevard Elementary School. Lampley was awarded $2,225 for her iPads in the Classroom project. She said the reason she loves teaching is because she gets to meet and work with some extraordinary people on a daily basis, and help mold their lives to be the leaders they were born to be.
William Stokes, Dauphin Junior High School. Stokes was awarded $350 for his Dauphin Art project. He said he loves teaching art because it requires students to be both creative and self-disciplined.
Kimberly Barcelona, Fort Rucker Elementary School. Barcelona was awarded $100 for her science support project. She has been teaching second grade at the school for three years, and said she loves bringing the sciences and STEM education alive in the classroom.
Karen Kerfoot, Coppinville Junior High. Awarded $500 for her 360 Classroom. Kerfoot said she loves teaching because she can make a difference in the lives of her students, and she hopes to be the light in their worlds and she loves knowing that she can help them in ways that they don't even realize.
"I challenge you to keep your door open while you are doing great things in your classroom," said Higginbotham. "As an agent of change, you will lead those around you without realizing it. Other teachers will see what you are doing and they will want that for themselves."
The thrift shop plans to continue the grant program, she said.
For more information, call 255-9595.
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