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Physical education teacher named ‘Educator of the Year’

Schafer first parochial school instructor to win award

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 9:28 PM Thursday, October 27, 2011

HAMILTON — Becky Schafer, health and physical education teacher at St. Peter in Chains School, was named Hamilton’s Educator of the Year at the Harry T. Wilks Celebrates Education Awards Thursday night at the Courtyard by Marriott.

She is the first parochial school teacher to be given the award since the program began in 2003.

Her nomination said the “33-year veteran teaches students not only about their bodies and their potential, but through her enthusiasm and her example she motivates them to move and to learn activities that will last a lifetime.

“She is a living example of the benefits of ‘Lifetime Fitness,’ which she preaches and teaches,” according to the nomination. “A desire to get outdoors led Schafer to bring archery into the schools through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and interest in the sport is through the roof. The First Tee golf program for grades 5-8 teaches basic golf skills as well as character building.”

In accepting the award, Schafer said she found her passion for teaching physical education when she was a student at St. Peter in Chains, even though they had no gymnasium at the time.

“The closest thing we had to physical education was when the nuns told us to go outside in the snow and run around so you don’t get frostbite,” she said, but when she visited a different school with a friend and saw a gym teacher, she asked incredulously, “That’s his job?”

“From that point on, I knew what I wanted to do,” she said. “I learned my passion at age 9 and never looked back.”

Schafer said she enjoys the job because it encompasses teaching across a lot of content areas: physics, math and “the wonders of the human body in the context of movement and games and activities,” even though her son chides her for “teaching kickball for a living.”

“When I look at the talent of my fellow nominees, I’m so proud to stand here,” she said. “We don’t do what we do for awards, but we do love a pat on the back now and then,” she said. “But I’m not going to lie: I do love to win.”

The other finalists included Kymm Bennett, eighth-grade science teacher at Garfield Middle School; Alison Gettler, fourth-grade teacher at Ridgeway Elementary; Jennifer Ritzie, second-grade teacher at Brookwood Elementary; and Dana Spears, intervention specialist at Bridgeport Elementary.

The banquet also recognized the 2011 winners of the Hamilton Celebrates Education Grant Recipients, including Heather Fenton and Melissa Grabel, Wilson Middle School; Susan Rowsey Damm, Highland Elementary; teachers at Ridgeway Elementary for a reading program; Teresa Heinrich, chemistry teacher at Badin; Terry Haynes-Toney, Ridgeway Elementary School; Kari Pennington, Bridgeport Elementary; and Wilson Principal Sheryl Burk and Garfield Middle School Principal Doug Leist for a joint Emerging Leaders program.

The Hamilton Community Foundation program is sponsored by Harry T. Wilks, a local attorney who is a 1943 graduate of Hamilton High School, and a longtime donor and supporter of charitable causes in the community.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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