This past week has been Teacher Appreciation Week, and I have been reflecting on the unique power of great teachers. As the mother of three and as the President and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County, I see the role teachers have in the lives of students, and I am struck by the ways that, through their competence, commitment, and character, teachers can transform lives. 

While one teacher can profoundly change a student’s life, the power to captivate young people is made easier when students have been inspired to wonder, to look deeper, to ask why at every stop along their K–12 journeys. 

We are fortunate in Sarasota County to have so many tremendous teachers who do just that. Through my involvement with the Ignite Education Teacher of the Year Awards Celebration, I am honored to have met and seen in action educators who fuel curiosity and a desire to always know more in our youngest learners. Teachers such as Shannon Haddad, Alex Kellemen, and Kari Johnson embrace the material they teach with such mastery, passion, and joy that their students can’t help but be inspired. What a great way to begin this journey.

Sometimes it’s not a single teacher. The collective energy and commitment of a school uniting to develop a lifelong love of learning can uncover countless new pathways. 

This February, at Glenallen Elementary School, I witnessed an immersive grant in action, one that created a week-long learning adventure. Pre-K through fifth grade students arrived at school to discover a staged archeological dig site taped off on school grounds. What followed was a week of discovery. As students processed what they’d found, clutching shells and artifacts, brushing them clean, the joy was incredible. These students felt immense ownership of the material as they researched and presented on what they’d learned. Inquiry-based learning was in action, and I am certain a future scientist will look back at that week and remember their teachers’ commitment and excitement—and know that it all mattered.

As students progress along their journeys, as they reach middle and high school, it might seem more challenging to captivate learners. Distractions abound. Students gain more independence. And teens have their own superpowers, one of which can be the power to keep their feelings and their enthusiasm concealed. As a mother of three, I know this doesn’t mean that teachers aren’t making a profound difference, modeling character, guiding their students, helping them find their purpose.

I also know that many teachers keep drawers or file folders filled with sources of inspiration, and in these are cards from their students, sometimes from students they would never have expected, sometimes years after they have graduated. In their letters, these students share the impact that their teacher had on them—how that teacher filled them with a fascination with calculus or crustaceans or Camus, how the teacher led that student to pursue history in college, or become an EMT, or start a business. 

Students write messages like this: You helped me understand math, for the first time! I wouldn’t be where I am today without your belief in me. Your class changed my whole plan for my life. I’m so lucky I had your class—your passion for theater and everything you taught us has meant so much to me. Your class meant so much to me.

That’s what great teachers do. Their love of the subjects they teach is so strong they can’t help but engage their students. Their creative ways of imparting lessons and making the material clear and meaningful, indeed vital, that matters.

This past week, I hope you took a moment to reflect on and maybe even to reach out to a teacher who inspired you, a teacher who fueled your curiosity, your need to know more, and who maybe even led you to pursue a different major in college, a different career path, a whole different trajectory in life. Our best teachers can do that. It’s their superpower. 

On behalf of the Education Foundation, our board, and our generous donors, we salute you, teachers, and your power to transform. We value your competence, your commitment, and your character. You keep our community thriving.

Jennifer Vigne is president and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County. 

Magicians like to keep their secrets just that – secret. It keeps the audience curious and awaiting the next trick. But this also keeps that mastery among a select few and puts their craft at risk of atrophying.

The greatest magic any of us can perform is to help grow the abilities of others as well as enhance their belief in themselves to create magic in their everyday lives. We saw that magic come to life this past week during the 2022 Giving Challenge, when tens of thousands of people came together to raise nearly $16 million for the nonprofit caretakers of our community.

Thanks to the generosity of everyone who made a gift, the spark of magic they ignited will manifest in the lives of people they may never meet.

The person who receives food and caring, the young person who will pursue a career to address climate change, the performer who will bring joy into the lives of their audiences. This is true magic that continues to reverberate well beyond the 24 hours of giving that initiates this energetic progress toward the good.

I extend a heartfelt appreciation to everyone who took part in the Giving Challenge this year, and every year prior. Over the last decade our community has raised more than $75 million through eight Giving Challenges. That amazing effort is greatly supported by our partners at The Patterson Foundation, whose matching gifts have provided $30 million of that total. The funds certainly provide the launching power for so much good to come about, but perhaps more important is the way that these funds have built the power of the helpers in our community.

It takes all of us to come together and create a community where everyone can thrive. I feel fortunate to get to see this time and time again in our work at the Community Foundation where we truly believe every person can impact another person, a cause, a community. The Giving Challenge is a way for us to reveal the secrets of the magic that happens when people come together.

In sharing knowledge and resources, we build hope and engage the hands, hearts, and minds of our entire community.

I’d like to know what someone may have shared with you that challenged you to give yourself to causes you care about. Please reach out and share.

In remembering that initial spark, we can send flares out to others to welcome more magicians into our community.

Roxie Jerde is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. 

We’re back with the incredible TGIF | BEST OF SRQ LOCAL PARTY celebrating the winners recognized and voted on by our readers in SRQ Magazine’s biggest ever 2022 Best of SRQ Local Readers Competition. Join us on Friday, June 3rd, from 5-8pm at the Aloft Hotel in Downtown Sarasota to taste and experience some of this year's "Best of SRQ Local" restaurants and cocktails. Share a hip evening with our area’s passionate localvores and foodies.

Click here to purchase tickets!