SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2018 | 7A
A Teacher’s Purpose
By Ramiro Ramirez
Siuslaw High School
Student
H
appy Teacher Apprecia-
tion Week to all teachers!
As an honor to Teacher
Appreciation Day on Tuesday,
I will present some of the most
memorable teachers I’ve had
during my school years.
My kindergarten teacher, Mrs.
Griff es, is still one of my favorite
teachers as she had a kind heart
and her class was fun. She had a
connection between kids’ hearts
because she got the class hyped
up for all activities. Whether
it was math, social studies or
reading, she always had the stu-
dents ready for the next activity.
Th e most memorable moment
I had with her was one of my
fi rst times acting. In the win-
ter, Mrs. Griff es set up a play so
that the whole class could par-
ticipate. I don’t remember how
well the play went, but I know
it involved some singing, and
dancing. I acted as a snowman
— and boy what a time that was.
Aft er I moved on from kin-
dergarten, I wouldn’t have a
teacher as memorable as her
until fi ft h grade.
As we prepared to enter fi ft h
grade, I heard some of my class-
mates talk about the teachers
that they wanted to be with for
the 2012-13 school year. Some
of those included Mr. Daugh-
erty, Mr. Utz and Mrs. Halpin. I,
on the other hand didn’t really
care which teacher I had. I was
then placed in Mr. Anderson’s
class, and that year brought
more than I expected.
On the very fi rst day of fi ft h
grade, Mr. Anderson made an
announcement about the sign-
ing of the U.S. Declaration of
Independence. Some of the oth-
er students didn’t seem to care
about it since they were talking
and doing their own thing, but
I looked around the room and
found several things related to
U.S. history. Th roughout the
year, it was a great ride with
him. Mr. Anderson appreciat-
ed that I was one of the leading
characters in CROW’s produc-
tion of Meredith Willson’s “Th e
Music Man Jr.”
Th ere were so many subjects
that I had a blast doing with him.
Our class learned math and the
history of America through the
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magic of media.
Th e most fun I had was a re-
search project on a hero we ad-
mire. At the time, I was a Micro-
soft enthusiast and had recently
looked at the evolution of the
Windows Operating Systems
from 1979 to 2013. My project
would be about the one who
contributed the most help to
these systems, Bill Gates. I could
arguably say, this was the project
I put the most eff ort into, going
as far as making fake laptops,
and an information board with
loads of information about each
operating system’s name, launch
date and reception. I even ended
up dressing up exactly like Bill
Gates — black suit and a pair
of glasses. Mr. Anderson gave
me an outstanding grade for
my craft smanship on my hard-
worked project.
Aft erwards, there were more
teachers to come.
I can’t think of a teacher
any better than Mrs. Dotson,
my sixth grade English teach-
er, to make middle school less
stressful. My sixth grade year
was very stressful since I saw
friends and classmates go into
their own groups and isolate
themselves from me. Whenever
I tried to squeeze into conversa-
tions, they would either ignore
me or tell me to go away in a
rude manner. I was pretty much
left alone then, but Mrs. Dot-
son would have
some stories to
make my day bet-
ter. Some stories
included “Touch-
ing Spirit Bear”
which is a book
that I completely
fell in love with.
I do hear there is
a movie about it,
and a sequel to the book and
movie titled “Ghost of Spirit
Bear.” I’m interested in learning
more about these stories.
Another teacher that stood
out to me was my Future Suc-
cess teacher, Mr. Perry. In fact,
he made the most impact on my
life by clearing some of the fog
in my future and have me fo-
cus on the things I loved via a
website. In our class, we took a
survey online of some things we
loved to do and then the web-
site would list possible jobs that
thought would suit us.
Mr. Perry told us to narrow it
down to three jobs we liked and
then choose one of the three.
One of them was a comput-
er soft ware designer, someone
who creates and develops soft -
ware for the computer indus-
try. I decided to choose that job
since the employment in that
industry is growing, and heck, I
love computers!
Mr. Perry is also the teacher
most relatable to me. Th e most
similar item we both share is a
high level of discipline. I even
got into the leadership program
through his leadership advi-
sor recommendation because
he saw the qualities in me that
could make me a potential lead-
er for the school.
In my current school year at
Siuslaw High School, there are
several teachers that make my
day better. Some include Mr.
McNeil, my Geometry teacher,
and Mr. Wartnick, my English
II teacher. However, there is one
teacher that stands out for me
the most — my biology teacher,
Mrs. Castro-Brandt. I can argu-
ably say that she is my favorite
teacher so far.
Th anks to her teaching, biol-
ogy is now one of my favorite
classes, a class I never knew I
would like. A reason why she
is my favorite teacher is the
way she uses the “tough love”
method on our class. If we are
behaving good, she will be easy
on us, but if we don’t know some
class material or misbehave, she
straightens up the class in a
quick, strict and easy way.
Another thing that I like about
her is that she embraces nature
and the conservation of our
planet. She has a project which
has taken her over 20 years
to build a mural solely out of
plastic bottle caps. It may seem
strange, but it is an excellent
way to reuse these small plastic
items. She thinks that she may
be able to complete the project
by the end of this school year,
or in the middle of next school
year. Because of those things, I
have learned to appreciate the
science of nature even more.
Teachers exist for a purpose:
to prepare the upcoming gen-
eration with knowledge about
the world they currently live in.
Th ey also teach them to be re-
sponsible, safe and well adults.
I would like to thank not only
all my teachers, but all teachers,
for educating us about the world
around us.
NUTRITION from page 1A
Church members have been
coordinating efforts with the
Florence Community Parent
Teacher Association (PTA) and
the local school districts to iden-
tify and support students that
are facing immediate hunger
and broader food security issues
on a regular basis.
“Volunteers deliver the food
bags to Siuslaw and Mapleton
schools on Thursday,” Barba
said. “The school staff knows
the students who may have lit-
tle or no food to count on when
they leave school Friday. They
discreetly distribute the week-
end food bags for those children
to place in their backpacks.”
Siuslaw Elementary School
Principal Mike Harklerode cur-
rently accepts 70 or more bags
from FB4K each week and sends
them home with children that
are facing nutritional issues. He
spoke to the overall challeng-
es faced by young people who
come to class hungry.
“This program fits a very spe-
cific need in our community. We
have a number of kids who get
three meals a day at school. Over
the weekend, and especially over
long holiday weekends, these
students may not have access
to the same level of nutrition,”
he said. “Being food insecure
can be demoralizing. It is hard
to think of anything else with a
hungry belly. The food backpack
program helps to fill that need. It
also allows for families to main-
tain dignity and honor since the
distribution is discrete.”
The number of backpacks
filled by the volunteers has in-
creased steadily since the first
year of the program. FB4K now
readies 80 or more support bags
each week.
“In 2012 we began feeding 20
children with funds our church’s
women’s group had raised. We
soon discovered the need was
much greater,” Barba said. “We
faced two choices: end the pro-
gram when we ran out of money
or get the word out to the com-
munity of the reality of hungry
children living among us. We
are people of faith in God and
believe we can fill a need when
we become aware of one.”
Barba said the small group
that had come together as a
means of fellowship and com-
munity service was surprised at
the response to the first year of
food support.
“Honestly, we were over-
whelmed. We are parents and
grandparents and we would not
walk away knowing the children
were already counting on the
food. So we took a risk, began to
let the community know about
our food challenged children
and how FB4K’s program was
effective for them,” Barba said.
“What we found was a com-
munity full of compassionate
friends, neighbors, businesses,
churches and service oriented
groups who would not accept
the reality of hungry children.”
The work done by FB4K has
been appreciated by program
participants and educators in
Florence since it began. One of
the often-mentioned reasons is
the fact that 100 percent of all
donations are used to purchase
food for distribution.
In addition, FB4K was recog-
nized and acknowledged on a
larger scale recently.
According to Barba, FB4K
partnered with the Florence
Community PTA in 2016 and
invited PTA President Tiffany
Holdahl and Vice President Sar-
ah Nunez to serve as advisors on
the board of directors.
“Sarah submitted the FB4K
program to the Oregon PTA in
consideration for a statewide
award,” Barba said. “In April, we
were surprised when she told us
that she had not only entered us
... but that FB4K was chosen to
receive The Program of the Year
Award.”
The Oregon PTA’s website
said, “This award will be pre-
sented to the local unit that sub-
mits an outstanding program
or project that focuses on one
or more of the following areas:
parent involvement, education,
health and safety, cultural or
performing arts or community
service.”
While Barba appreciates the
award FB4K received, she is
quick to add that the success of
the program is primarily due to
the dedication and commitment
of donors and volunteers.
“I think this Program of the
Year Award is to be shared with
every volunteer, donor and
partner in our community who
makes FB4K effective in erasing
childhood hunger. Our volun-
teers are humbled with the com-
munity’s generosity, support and
trust in us. We work tirelessly to
earn that trust and never lose fo-
cus of our motto ... Together, No
Child Will Go Hungry.”
For more information on the
Florence Backpack for Kids nu-
tritional support program, call
541-997-2497 or visit www.
backpackimpact.com.
Marilyn Barba is the program
director for FB4K. She believes
the need for the program was
clear and some form of nutri-
tional support was needed for
local students.
“In the spring of 2012, our
small women’s group researched,
developed and, nine months
later, were ready to implement
our food backpack program,”
Barba said. “The program was
designed to provide three nutri-
tious, shelf stable, easily opened
meals with snacks for Saturday
and Sunday.”
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