Date: Fri 12-Jun-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-Hawley-teachers

Full Text:

Hawley Salutes Its Veteran Teachers

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

When music teacher Susan Ziemann arrived at work last Thursday, she was

treated to valet parking. The red carpet (construction paper) had been rolled

out in her honor, and that of seven other Hawley teachers.

This was done in appreciation for the gift they has been giving Newtown

children for the past 25 years.

Mrs Ziemann was honored along with other Hawley teachers and

paraprofessionals, Gary Wilkinson, John Bird, Frankie Crookes, Barbara Borst,

Rosemary Trudell, Randall Pond, and Donna Mishico, for a quarter century or

more of service to Newtown children.

An outpouring of appreciation, in the form of song, poetry, warm words of

welcome for all of these dedicated teachers soon filled the auditorium.

PTA President Carolyn Cruson stepped up to the podium and said "all of you,

the students, have very creative minds. You have a frequently unique way of

viewing the world. They appreciate the creative ways your minds work. Nobody

survives as a teacher for 25 years because it is simply `a job'...These

individuals are at the center of what is the heart and soul of Hawley School,

her faculty, and we thank them for sharing so much of themselves with us."

Michelle DeLuca, former Hawley student currently attending Newtown High

School, then carried the audience away with her singing of "You were my hero."

After the show, children flowed onto the stage to congratulate their teachers.

Rosemary Trudell said, "It's an emotional bath. I love working with these

kids. There is no greater high."