To teachers, a heartfelt thank you

Efforts of Yuma County educators are much appreciated

Just like that, another school year is wrapping up across Yuma County, and summer vacation is literally just days away. To all of our teachers, thank you. Thank you for spending your days in our classrooms, educating our youth.

Thank you for spending your nights and weekends grading papers and preparing upcoming lessons.

Thank you for meeting with parents, keeping them informed of any challenges that come up during the school year, and working with parents and students alike to overcome those challenges.

Thank you for paying for supplies out of your own pocket, for helping your students with folders and notebooks, and reaching out to make sure they have the tools needed to do their classwork.

Thank you for spending your time before and after school to help struggling students master their lessons.

Thank you for giving students the encouragement to succeed, for pushing the students who needed a little more focus, and leading them through the hurdles of the school year.

Thank you for keeping them safe each day, and ensuring that school is a positive learning experience.

Thank you for connecting with our students, working through and around their individual challenges and personal circumstances.

Thank you for guiding them, nurturing them and listening to them.

Thank you for investing your time and effort into each of our students, for going the extra mile, and celebrating their successes.

Thank you for motivating our students, for setting positive examples, and inspiring our students to do more — and to be more.

And most of all, thank you for choosing to make a difference in our students’ lives. Those two words aren’t nearly enough to express how appreciated you are, and odds are, you don’t hear them often enough — but your efforts have not gone unnoticed!

Welcome to summer break — you’ve earned it!

Memorial Day 2017. How do we put into words the feelings that we all share on Memorial Day and every day for the men and women who are the nation’s fallen soldiers of our wars? I am grateful for their sacrifices to protect our country and our freedom to be able to live as we do. We must never forget and never stop recognizing their trust, their courage and the idealism that burned in their hearts.

For all those marching in parades and celebrating the lives of our veterans, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to honor the men and women who loved us and our country enough that they gave the ultimate. Let us never stop honoring and remembering them, and remember them not just on Memorial Day, but every day.