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2005 - 2006 Oklahoma City Public Schools Teacher of the Year
Robyn Hilger from Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School
The District is proud to announce the 2005-2006 Oklahoma City Public Schools Teacher of the Year is Robyn Hilger. She teaches at Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School, where her co-workers and students are elated about her awarded honor. Hilger is an educator who has been described as a teacher-leader who epitomizes integrity and is a master of the teaching craft. Her enthusiasm to do a job with excellence is contagious and colleagues, volunteers and students work well under this educator’s leadership. Hilger’s students call her a magnificent teacher who makes learning energetic and fun and makes you want to come to school. She has taught for four years and is currently teaching sixth, seventh and eighth grade band and orchestra
OKLAHOMA'S TOP YOUTH VOLUNTEER
SELECTED IN NATIONAL AWARDS PROGRAM
Honors also bestowed on other top youth volunteers in Oklahoma
Congratulations to Brittany Easter, 14, of Tulsa named as one of Oklahoma’s two youth volunteers for 2005 by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 10th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary Schools Principals (NASSP). More than 20,000 high school and middle level students submitted applications for this year’s program.
Brittany, an eighth-grader at Bixby Middle School, has undertaken a number of significant volunteer projects to promote literacy, the arts and other causes. Brittany calls her effort “G.R.O.W.,” which stands for “Giving Reaps Only Winners.” “I look for where I can help and volunteer my talents so others will grow,” she explained.
To encourage reading among young people, Brittany volunteered last summer to help her local library conduct a summer reading program that signed up 38,000 new readers. Also, working in conjunction with the American Red Cross, she contributed her time and some of her own money to a reading campaign that reached a thousand disadvantaged children. Reflecting her interest in the arts, Brittany helped raise $1,000 to produce a special ballet performance for low-income and special-needs students, and served a s a “roadie” for the Bixby High School marching band. She also has conducted projects for cancer patients, collected books and magazines for the military, and even wrote a song to support the troops. “I love helping others,” says Brittany. “All it takes is a willingness to give your time, your talent, and a heart to serve others.”
As a State Honoree, Brittany will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense paid trip in early May to Washington, D. C., where she and Oklahoma’s other State Honoree Leea Logston, 17, of Oklahoma City, will join the top two honorees—one middle level and one high school youth—from each of the other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America’s top youth volunteers for 2005 at that time.
In addition, two other middle level students were recognized as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each receives an engraved bronze medallion:
Kenna Baker, 13, of Yukon, a member of the Canadian County 4-H in El Reno and a seventh-grader at Lakeview Middle School in Yukon, sewed and mailed 2,700 “cooling ties” to U. S. soldiers in Iraq to help keep them cool in the intense summer heat. In addition to making the “ties” herself, Kenna hosted sewing parties for others at her house and taught members of many local organizations how to make the product.
Christine Blue, 15, of Collinsville, a freshman at Collinsville High School, conducted a car wash and silent auction that together raised nearly $1,500 to buy Christmas presents and throw a holiday party for children of incarcerated parents.
All public and private middle level and high school in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs, Camp Fire USA councils and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.
