Sue's story for the June 4 Bulletin

 

As we gathered to celebrate our Teacher of the Year awards, some of us were nursing sore muscles pedaling for a cancer cure at Sunday’s 6^th annual Tour de Pier, while others (including me) were nursing the arm muscles we flexed at the South Bay Beer & Wine Festival, hosted by the Rotary Clubs of Palos Verdes Peninsula and South Bay Sunrise. We all have to do our part!

 

The first order of business was to get a working microphone, but Norm Levin was, as always, on the job. In his thought for the day, new member John Clough described a threat faced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with compassion rather than anger, when “he did not stray from principles even when under attack.”

 

President Mark Burton read thank you notes from supporters and beneficiaries of our many events and projects including: Celebrate Manhattan Beach, Craft Awards, Friendship Foundation and El Camino Foundation. He then announced that, for his many contributions (including sound at this very meeting), Norm Levin is Rotarian of the Month. Another award went to president-in-training, Ken Deemer, who won the hospitality night creativity award at last week’s District Conference for his dynamic pairing of pickles and peanut butter.

 

President Mark chose as the theme for his year – Service to Children in Need. He read an impressive list of the projects we’ve done that have impacted children both in our community and the world -- a reminder that the work we do truly makes a difference.

 

A $1,000 scholarship for the Monterey Continuation High School, presented by Nelson Gray, was a fitting example of President Mark’s theme.

 

Of course, the children of this community benefit greatly from the excellence of our school system, which rests squarely on the shoulders of its wonderful teachers. We came together today to honor them.

 

This year, spearheaded by the efforts of Joel Ruben, we awarded the first Sandy Casey Memorial Scholarship to Chinemelum Abada, a student at El Camino College and a mother of three who moved here from Nigeria 12 years ago. Casey, a beloved special education teacher at MBMS, was one of the victims in the October Las Vegas shooting. Like Casey, Abada has a passion for special education. She will use the $4,000 scholarship to pursue a teaching credential in early childhood education at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

 

Fighting back tears, MBMS Principal Kim Linz, aided by Superintendent Mike Matthews, next awarded the MBMS Teacher of the Year award to Sandy Casey, whose contributions were movingly described in a student-made video. As Linz made clear, Casey was chosen because she was a “phenomenal teacher.”

 

Mike Matthews referred to our award-winning teachers as rock stars and said that this was just the first stop on their rock star tour. As principals described the winning teachers, we heard personal anecdotes about teachers who returned to schools they had attended, had more than 30 years teaching experience, brought a guitar to the classroom at her students’ request, kept a pet tortoise, and gathered input from parents to contribute to classroom discussions. You can read the full list of these wonderful award-winning educators here.

 

As the final award, Superintendent Matthews presented the District Teacher of the Year, chosen from the eight award winners. It went to Robinson Elementary School fourth grade teacher Kim Holz, who attended Robinson and now teaches there.

 

We now have two weeks (we’re dark on Memorial Day) to think about the accomplishments of President Mark’s year in “Service to Children in Need,” which we all know couldn’t be accomplished without the leadership and participation of our active and involved Rotary family.