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Donation touches teachers$5,000 given to reward
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Teachers at Black Creek Elementary and Middle School have never hesitated to spend their own money to enhance the education of children.
From chalk to crayons, books to costumes, posters to bulletin boards, many of the materials you find throughout the school were donated by teachers who didn’t think twice about buying them — and never expected anyone to notice.
But in Black Creek, someone did notice.
One day this winter, 50 hundred dollar bills showed up in Principal Michael Flaherty’s office with a note and a copy of a recent newspaper story describing teachers’ tendencies to spend their own money on kids. The short note merely indicated the money was intended for the teachers. It was anonymously signed a “Black Creek parent.”
The kind gesture not only surprised the school’s teachers, it deeply touched many of them.
“I truly believe the person who gave that money had a teacher in his or her life who really influenced them at some time ... a teacher that meant a lot to them,” said Pam Moeller, an 8th-grade reading and language arts teacher.
Moeller has purchased many books for her classroom and has spent untold amounts of her own money on costumes for plays, field trips and other items. She thought a great deal about how to spend her special $100. Rather than use it on classroom materials — “which I would buy anyway” — she decided to buy a kayak paddle to enhance one of her favorite summer hobbies.
“I will think of that person every time I pick up that paddle,” she said. “I will always remember there is someone out there who cared enough about a teacher to give me that paddle.”
Many teachers have not yet decided how to spend the money, but gym teacher Margie Johnson will use the money to buy weights for the school weight room “so I can take mine back home.”
Like Moeller, 1st-grade teacher Rhoda Thiel said she wants to use her $100 to buy something “special and personal” so that every time she uses it she will think of the anonymous donor.
Among the school materials Thiel spends her own money on are photo albums. She takes pictures throughout the year and puts together small photo albums for each child at the end of the year. She uses her own camera and film and spends her own money on processing and on the albums.
Sue Barth, a 5th-grade teacher, and other teachers spend their own money on a program that rewards good student behavior with soda, popcorn, candy bars and books.
Asked how much she spends, Barth said, “I don’t even want to know. It’s not important to me.”
Bob Schindler, an 8th-grade history teacher, has purchased a fish pond for his classroom (see picture on Page 4). He and other teachers use the pond as part of a unit on the ecosystem.
Every Black Creek teacher agreed it meant a lot to them that someone in the community recognized their extra efforts.
Teachers said the $5,000 donation has raised the spirits of teachers, parents and students — more because of the gesture than the money.
“Every time I look at a parent, I think this could be the one who donated the money,” said guidance counselor Mari Reinheimer.
“The domino effect of that is phenomenal.”
Posted April 2, 1998
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