Today, November 11th, 2010, marks an annual celebration that takes place in various venues across our fine country - Veteran's Day. At Marion W. Savage Elementary this morning we had the pleasure of welcoming distinguished veterans into our school to participate in our Veteran's Day Program. Through collaboration with the Savage Legion, the Marine Corp League presented and retired the colors, Marine Veteran Chris Zollman addressed the student population about the history of this important day, Music Teacher Margaret Hinton lead the entire audience in a singing of "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful", and "TAPS" was performed by Musician Jeremy Morgan. Students, MWS staff members, and various guests paid tribute to and honored the service of all of our veterans. As I reflect upon the significance of this event, I feel the need to also honor the service of a number of different people in our MWS Community for their efforts and on-going contributions to our learning community. Here are a few individuals whose continued service should also be honored:
(1) Robbie Bunnell - Robbie continues to amaze me with the various ways in which she supports MWS and perhaps more specifically, me. Recently, Robbie has worked to refine and update our school brochure, she created the beautiful program for our Veteran's Day Ceremony, and she is continually thinking of additional ways in which our school community can grow, develop and market ourself more successsfully in the future. Thank you Robbie!
(2) Beth Spaude & Maria Peerboom - Running a school-wide fundraising effort isn't easy - let's face it, it can be a complete pain. Nonetheless, Beth and Maria have devoted countless hours toward raising money for our Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) and ultimately MWS. They have individually delivered gift-wrap orders to homes, lifted hundreds of boxes off of a large truck, and worked feverishly to organize and keep track of thousands of dollars. Thank you Beth & Maria!
(3) Allison Thompson - For the past few weeks the MWS Health Office has been conducting their annual vision & hearing screenings with MWS students, and Allison has been there every step of the way. When she is not spear-heading her campaigns to purchase new and more extensive recess equipment for all students, Allison is interacting with students of all ages, helping them through the exciting process of a health screening at MWS. Allison has made things run smoothly and has been a great support. Thank you Allison!
(4) Pam Voigt - I am continually amazed at how quickly our new Volunteer Coordinator has organized a series of volunteer efforts and is beginning to amass quite a crew of active volunteers. Pam has taken individual projects, such as the school yearbook, and developed it into a wide network of parent volunteers working together to create a memory all students at MWS can enjoy. Whether it is Odds n' Ends or organizing Barnes & Noble night, Pam gets things done with the type of energy I admire. Thank you Pam!
(5) Amy Kierstad - Read Night is one of my favorite traditions at MW Savage, and I have to be completely honest, without Amy's work this year, I don't know if we could have pulled it off. While it is true, the MWS Site Council is responsible for organizing this wonderful event, Amy took on the brunt of the work after being "volunteered" for the task by her daughter's principal. From collecting books, to categorizing and organizing them, to generally running the event from start to finish to after-finish, Read Night was a success because of Amy. Thank you Amy!
One of the best parts of my job as principal of Marion W. Savage is to see people like the ones mentioned in this blog post in action, working passionately not only for their children, but for the greater good of our school community. I continue to be sincerely grateful for all you do!
