Remember your school days?
Of course you do.
Everybody does.
Maybe you were the kid in the front row who always turned in your homework on time.
Or, if you’re grinning sheepishly right now while reading this, it could be you were that kid in back row who acted up a lot — because you just didn’t want to be there.
Either way, you had something in common.
You had a teacher who believed in you.
A teacher who was your challenger and cheerleader, no matter what.
Of course, you remember that teacher (everybody does), and that was the whole point of a special evening this past Wednesday at University Motors in Morgantown.
In a nod to school tradition and collective memory, let’s begin the account with roll call.
So, settle in (and try not to act up), because it’s going to take us a minute.
Perfect attendance
Said evening was why Willa Lindsey, Emersyn Archer and Kennedy Cuenin-Meno were there.
And why they were joined by Greyson Mattingly, Xavier Sammons and Bryer Bartholow.
And why Caleb Stansberry also kept company with Karli Collins, Chesney King and Madelyn Hilleary.
If you don’t know any of the above, they are all elementary school students from across Monongalia County.
Middle-schoolers, high school students and those who study at the county Technical Education Center also raised their hands in attendance.
They included Grace Blackburn, Lillian Shaffer, Summer Johnson and Olive Burgett.
Others in the “older kid” contingent were Emily Moore, Kaileigh Martinez and Laina Osbourne, along with a whole Advanced Placement Physics class — represented by Joyce Hu, Supriya Rathinam and Austin Luo.
In a manner of speaking (writing, actually) every single one among the above came out to turn it around on Ashley Ford, Kelly Zundell, David Scott, Miranda Harker and Megan O’Neil.
And Savannah Wright, Sarah Rummel and Allasyn Simunic.
Let it be noted that Shanon Walmsley and Mellissa Foinash were also surprised.
So were David Joyce, Elvira Stanescu, Sarah Queen and Brian Lakatos.
Ashley Glock, Sean Watson, Tyler Gunnels or James Hasley never saw it coming, it can be said.
That group, should you not know, are all educators in schools across Mon County.
And those who all answered the first roll call are all students in their classrooms. Or were, anyway.
An A for effort
Because we see you starting to fidget a bit in the back (yes, you) and we got all the housekeeping out of the way, we can now tell you what this gathering, on that rainy evening at the car dealership on Don Knotts Boulevard, was about.
The occasion was the 2024 “You Made a Difference” Awards ceremony, whereby all those students came out to honor all those teachers who did (and are doing) just that.
It was put in past tense, because, as the organizers of the evening said, the impression has already been made.
In the parlance of the automobile assembly line, key components and foundations of learning and ethics have already been bolted in place.
University Motors is known for the gathering.
Andy and Diana Claydon, the husband and wife who own and operate the dealership, came up with it to honor educators and what they do to positively shape young lives.
COVID-19 ran it off the road for a couple of years, and they wanted to bring it back.
Diana steered students for years as a teacher, before leaving the classroom to go into the car business.
Andy has an academic experience spanning the Atlantic Ocean.
He’s never forgotten the lessons and wisdom imparted by his teachers back home in his native England.
“Even now, when I close my eyes I still see them,” he said in a voice still has its Angelo moorings, despite all his years in Appalachia.
It’s their voices he still hears, he said.
“I can transport myself right back to their classrooms. I draw on their lessons and their advice daily, I can tell you that.”
Conjuring … accomplishment
Meanwhile, Mon’s students read aloud the essays they penned honoring their teachers, who each received an award depicting an apple in brushed gold, perfect for displaying on a desk.
The dealership also bestowed a $500 check to each honoree, which they could spend as they wish — although Diana, still ever the educator, predicted the offering would be used for classroom supplies and other teaching materials.
For her, the student essays truly were teachable moments, she said.
“I read every one,” she said.
“They made me laugh and they made me cry. They were so sincere and heartfelt. I’m so very proud of our students and our teachers who moved them to write like that.”
One student on the Autism spectrum talked about the teacher who took pains to make a safe, comfortable environment in class.
Another talked about the one teacher who danced and told Dad jokes while still getting the lesson plan across — even if he did occasionally track mud across the floor of his own classroom while doing all that.
Some students brushed tears, and others had to quell the giggles, while listing the litany of caring and time taken by those in the front of the classroom, or in the middle of that circle of seats.
More than one set of eyes welled among the teachers who got to hear it all.
Another student, with all the new nostalgia of a now-fifth-grader recognizing his favorite teacher from way back in third grade, was simply in awe of someone who could actually make a kid want to go to school.
All day.
Every day.
“It was magic,” he said.
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